Conducting a Journalistic Interview: A Practical Guide

A journalistic interview is a structured conversation in which a reporter gets information, opinions or first-hand accounts from someone that can't be found in documents. Content writers need the same skill when they interview an expert for a guide or a customer for a case study. An interview succeeds or fails before the meeting as much as during it: preparation first, then good questions, then careful listening, then faithful reporting of what was said. This guide breaks each stage into steps you can apply.

Start by defining the goal

Not all interviews are alike, and the goal shapes the questions, the length and the format:

• Information interview: to get specific facts quickly, such as the details of a decision or an incident. Short and focused.
• Expert interview: to explain or analyze a complex subject, such as how a new regulation might affect prices.
• Profile interview: to portray a person and their story. It needs more time and questions about experience, feelings and detail.
• Eyewitness account: to find out what someone saw for themselves, keeping what they saw separate from what they heard from others.

An interview can be a reporting tool for a news story or report, or it can be the published piece itself in question-and-answer form, one of the formats covered in the complete guide to journalism and content writing. Before writing a single question, answer this one: what do I need from this person that I can't get anywhere else?

Preparation: half the interview happens beforehand

• Research the person: previous interviews, public statements, their work, their exact job title, and how their name is spelled and pronounced. Nothing weakens an interview like asking something their official bio already answers.
• Research the subject: know the basics so you don't spend their time on the obvious, and bring any documents or figures you may need to put to them.
• Pick three must-haves: if the interview is cut short, these are the questions you must already have asked.
• Order your questions: start with easy ones that build rapport, then the core questions, then the tough ones at a point that leaves time for a response and follow-up, not in the last minute. Close with something like "Is there anything I haven't asked that you think matters?" It often produces the best material.
• Sort out logistics: time, a quiet location, the agreed length, charged recording devices and a backup.

When you request the interview, say who you are, who you are writing for, the topic, the expected length, whether you will record it and where it will be published. Sending a full list of questions in advance is a matter of house policy: some official bodies insist on it, while many journalists share only the broad topics so the answers don't turn into a written statement. Discuss it with your editor before committing to anything.

Writing questions: open and closed

Each type of question does a different job, and a good interview mixes them:

Open questions bring lively quotes and detail; closed questions nail down the facts you will build on. "Walk me through...," "What happened next?" and "Give me an example" are some of the most useful phrases a reporter has. On the other hand, avoid:

• Leading questions: "Wouldn't you agree the decision was a mistake?" puts the answer in their mouth.
• Double questions: two questions in one sentence, so the interviewee picks the easier one.
• Long preambles: if a question needs a paragraph of set-up, you're talking too much.
• Yes-or-no questions about feelings: "Were you happy?" is weaker than "How did you feel at that moment?"

Ask tough questions calmly and neutrally, and attribute the criticism to its source: "Some shop owners say the new fees will force them to close. What's your response?" That gives the interviewee a fair chance to answer and keeps you from looking like a party to the dispute.

Recording and consent

• Ask permission explicitly: before you start recording, then again at the start of the recording itself, for example: "Do you agree to this interview being recorded for publication?" That way the consent is on tape.
• Know the local rules: laws on recording calls and conversations vary by country, and recording someone without their knowledge can expose you to legal trouble in many places. Check with your editor or your organization's legal adviser if in doubt.
• Record on two devices: your phone and a backup recorder. Test the sound in the actual location before you begin.
• Take notes anyway: jot down the approximate time of each important remark so you can find it quickly when writing.
• Check automatic transcripts: speech-to-text tools save time but make plenty of mistakes, especially with Arabic dialects and names. Compare every quote you plan to publish against the original recording.
• Store recordings securely: don't share them outside the team, and follow your organization's policy on how long to keep them.

If the interview is filmed or photographed, consent to use the person's image is a separate permission you need to get clearly.

Attribution terms: on and off the record

Misunderstandings about what can be published, and how it will be attributed, cause many disputes between journalists and sources. The common newsroom terms:

• On the record: everything said can be published and attributed to the person by name and title.
• On background: the information can be used with an agreed description of the source, such as "a ministry official," without a name.
• Off the record: the information is for your understanding only and won't be published, although some journalists will try to confirm it with another source who will go on the record.

The catch is that people don't all understand these terms the same way. So agree on the terms explicitly before the information is shared, not afterward, and explain what each term means in plain words. Take particular care with ordinary people who don't know how the media works: a mother describing a problem at her son's school may not realize her words will appear under her name unless you tell her. If someone asks after the conversation to withhold something, discuss it with your editor and weigh the potential harm to them. These responsibilities are covered in more depth in journalism and media ethics.

During the interview: listening and follow-ups

The best interviews don't follow the question list word for word. They follow what the person says and build on it:

• Listen more than you talk, and interrupt only to steer the conversation back on topic.
• Use silence: when someone finishes an answer, wait two or three seconds before your next question. People often add their most important point in that pause.
• Ask follow-ups: "What do you mean by that?" "How do you know?" "When exactly did that happen?" "Who else should I talk to?"
• Capture concrete details: numbers, names, places and phrases that would make good quotes.
• Don't let evasion pass silently: rephrase the question politely and ask again. If they still decline, that refusal is itself information you may report.
• Close carefully: confirm the spelling of their name and title, ask for any document mentioned, ask whether you can get back to them with questions, and thank them.

Remote interviews

Phone, video-call and message-based interviews are now a normal part of the job, and each has its trade-offs:

In remote interviews, always confirm the person's identity, especially if you reached them through a social media account. Is the account verified? Can you confirm through another channel, such as their employer's website? Allow for time differences if they're in another country in the region. If the interview will be published as audio, the sound quality bar is higher; see podcasting from idea to first episode.

Accuracy of quotes after the interview

• A direct quote in quotation marks means these are the person's exact words. A paraphrase goes without quotation marks and must keep the meaning intact.
• Light cleanup is accepted by many publications, such as removing repetitions and filler words, as long as meaning and tone don't change. Policies differ, so know your publication's rules.
• Dialect and Modern Standard Arabic: Arabic print media usually render colloquial speech in standard Arabic, keeping the meaning without adding anything. Some features keep short colloquial phrases for their expressive value. Whatever you do, be consistent within a piece.
• Translation: if the person spoke Arabic and you publish in English, the quote is a translation. It must be accurate in meaning, not literal word for word.
• Context: never trim a sentence in a way that changes its meaning, such as dropping a "but" and everything after it.
• Check the recording, not your memory, before publishing any quote.

On sending the piece to the interviewee before publication: in independent journalism, the norm is not to send the full text for approval, though checking technical details or figures with them is fine. In commercial content such as case studies, by contrast, having the interviewee approve their quotes is standard, because the piece is published under the organization's name. For tools to verify what an interviewee told you, see fact-checking and countering misinformation.

Interview checklist

• Have you defined the goal and the three things you must come away with?
• Have you researched the person and the subject, and confirmed their name and title?
• Are your questions ordered from easy to core to tough, with time left for follow-ups?
• Did you get consent to record, and capture it at the start of the recording?
• Did you explicitly agree on attribution terms before the conversation began?
• Did you record on two devices and note the time of key remarks?
• Have you matched every quote against the recording before publishing?
• Have you independently verified the important claims and numbers?