Sunday, 20 March 2011

Closed Questions

Closed questions are questions that resolt in very short answers. If an interviewer where to as ask the interviewee a question the interviewee would respond with either one word or a very short sentence. An interviewer would ask a closed question if they wanted to check something quickly or confirm something previously asked. In an interview this would be a good type of question to use at certain points as it keeps the conversation flowing and also keeps the interviewer in control of the interview. Closed questions can also be very good as ice breakers as well and also as extra questions to relax the interviewee a bit and get them prepared for open questions. The positives of using closed questions is that it keeps the interview to time as it is just short snappy simple answers, whereas the negatives of closed questions is that their will be no depth to the answers therefore it makes it less interesting for the audience to watch as they are not getting any good and in depth information.

Friday, 4 February 2011

The stages of Interviewing

Stage 1

In stage 1 you need to determine what the topic of your interview is going to be and thinking about the questions you are going to ask.

Stage 2

In stage 2 you need to research into the topic that you have chosen to do an interview on and then you need to write out the questions that you have concluded form your research.

Stage 3

In stage 3 you need to select who you are going to interview and make sure you have contacted them so that you are able to interview them. You also need to do research into the interviewees as you need to have a good reason to interview them.

Stage 4

Stage 4 is where you structure your interview and you do this by putting all questions in order by following the rules of confidence building and key questions and a wind up at the end.

Stage 5

Stage 5 is when you conduct the interview therefore you go and do the interview and record it.

People use this structure for many reasons the main one being is that by using this structure it will appeal to the audience watching the interview and it will make sense and be interesting. Also another reason why this is a good structure as it is the best way to get the answers you want out of the interviewee as you relax them first and then go into the questions so it is also a way of making the interviewee comfortable and getting the best possible answers out of them.

Communication Skills: Body language

Body language is the way you present yourself in an interview. When doing an interview you need to be natural and stay in your own space and do not invade your interviewee's space as it will put them of answering and responding well. The only time you could go into someones space would be if you already knew the person you were interviewing.


Here is a clear case of bad body language as the interviewer (Russell Harty) has his back to one of the interviewees(Grace Jones) making her feel uncomfortable and left out therefore she gets angry and starts hitting the inrerviewer. Therefore from this video you can clearly see how body language can affect the interviewee.

As you can see the interviewer (Ellen Degeneres) has good body language towards the interviewee (Ellen Page) as she is looking at Ellen Page and making eye contact with her yet keeping in her own space therefore making Ellen Page feel comfortable and therefore good answers are said and she feels realxed to answer all the questions.

Communication Skills: Active Listening

Active listening is when you as the interviewer listen to the response that they are giving to you and then you show them that you have in fact listened to there response. You would do this by responding with a question that summarises what they have just said so they know that you are listening.

It is a good idea to use active listening as it shows communication between the interviewer and interviewee and this can also be shown by the eye contact between them and this therefore might make the interviewee comfortable as they know that they are being listened to and therefore will carry on talking and answering to in depth questions.


As you can see in this interview when the interviewee (Natilie Portman) is speaking and answering the questions the interviewer (Ellen Degeneres) is active listening as you can see this by the way she nods her head and agrees throughout when Natilie Portman is speaking and then she responds with a question that summarises what was said, therefore this way Natilie Portman knows that Ellen is listening to what she is saying.

Communication skills: Building Rapport

Building rapport is when you as the interviewer get a good understanding with the interviewee. This can happen even if they do not agree on all things but as long as you have an understanding of each other you can get a good interview out of it. People who are good at this are people like Jonathon Ross and Alan Carr.

Also other people who are good at 'building rapport' are politicians as building rapport also means that you need to have respect for each other even though you share different views. Therefore this is why politicians are good at this as they all have polarised views but they have respect for what each other has to say even though they do not agree with it at all.

Thursday, 3 February 2011

Structuring - Windup

The windup is the very last thing in the interview and it literally just winds up the interview and brings the whole thing to a close. You would generally end on a nice light hearted question and also then thank the person for being interviewed.


As you can see at the end of this interview Jonathan Ross winds it all up by complimenting her on her movies and then saying thank you for the interview. The wind up is always polite at the end of the interview and also signals to the audience that the interview is ending.

Structuring - Summary

At the end of the interview you need to summarise all the questions you have asked in a question so that you can get a good conclusion on the topic of the interview.