Conducting an interview

Under the initial stage of the interview refers to a preliminary agreement on the phone, if it takes place, the first minutes of direct contact. The initial stage is of great importance for the entire conversation, since it lays the foundations for the further relationship of all participants. To lead the interview at this stage is to create an idea of ​​the interview situation in the interviewee that would help to achieve fruitful interaction. For this you need:

Creating an image of the interviewer.

First of all, the interlocutor perceives the appearance of the journalist, his manner of holding, speaking. The first impression is indicative of har-r and is associated with a person's ability to predict events and prepare for them. The interviewer is obliged to correctly read the interlocutor and create conditions for the interlocutor to correctly, without distortion, be read by the interlocutor. And the components that make up the image of a perceived person are: behavior, mimicry, appearance, facial expression. The role of these components increases when the contact of the participants is not brief (press interviews), but the conversation is lengthy, based on the personal relationships of the participants.

It is also interesting that it is impossible to resolve the issue of clothing, appearance, and manner of holding the interviewer-journalist, without first deciding a more general and fundamental question: should a journalist behave in an interview situation naturally, that is, as is characteristic of him in a familiar environment, or he should play whichever. How does the interlocutor's har-r imagine his attitude to the journals, his position in the upcoming discussion of the interview? There are different opinions on this matter, here’s one of them:

Here you see in front of you a tinted lady in a pantsuit, ”one journalist said,“ I have large earrings in my ears. When I went to the farm to write about the advanced milkmaid, do you think I removed them? Nothing of the kind, and took the pants with him, and cigarettes. And if I do not paint eyelashes in the Arctic, it is only because the weather does not allow.

From this it follows that there are journalists who are themselves in any situation. But there are those who believe that the reporter should be an actor. So, to the question of. whether a journalist can be a hypocrite, should answer, but in no case should he. The mental properties of journalists are so different - one can have a greater artistry, the ability to transform, this is for him a natural behavior, the other is not peculiar. Every journalist has the right to choose those receptions. Which are close to him. However, the realization that the external features and manners of the interviewer influence the perception of the interlocutor, the image of the journalist created in his presentation, is necessary for the interviewer, regardless of whether he is a supporter of natural behavior or acting.

Creating an idea of ​​the goals and objectives of the interview

The person to whom the correspondent came, first of all, is interested in the purpose and reason for the conversation, according to which he was chosen as the interviewee. The task of the journalist is to define them in such a way as not to distort reality, to arrange it in favor of the interview, to cause the desire to cooperate with the interviewer. To do this, he must imagine the motives for which the person agrees to participate in the conversation, the goals to which he aspires. They may be different, and there may be several of them at the same time. Sometimes this desire to cause certain actions: to correct, change, punish someone. The desire of popularity can also be such a motive. A strong motive that encourages a person to take part in a conversation is the need for communication: a person needs to speak, and the interview gives him that opportunity and attentive interlocutor in the person of a journalist. They can also enter into interviews under the influence of accepted norms: rules of politeness, hospitality, and respect for the work of others. Depending on how a journalist, on the basis of preliminary preparation, his own experience and observations, directly determines the motives guiding the interlocutor, he must build the introductory part and the first questions of the conversation, putting forward one or the other arguments in order to strengthen some of the motives and weaken the others.