Recently when I was interviewing the Mayor of the Kiama Council, Sandra McCarthy, I found it difficult to sustain a comfortable interview environment in which i could obtain the best information from her due to my inexperience. Before this interview I had never interviewed someone in my life, so I wasn’t sure what to expect or how to prepare for it. Since reading Chris Frost’s article on interviewing I have discovered where i went wrong. Frost states:
Many young and inexperienced reporters fall into the trap of believing that a research interview is the same as the performance (interview) and that a hectoring, intrusive manner is required. This is likely to lose you the interviewee very quickly and will certainly not encourage them to tell you anything useful. (Frost, Reporting for Journalists)
Frost highlights the two different forms of interviews being a research interview and a performance interview usually used for broadcast. I now know where I went wrong, I was trying to incorporate both types of interviews into one making my interview structure scattered. Now that I know this I will hopefully become a better, more confident interviewer in the future..
