What are the top interview skills for journalists?

Journalists require specific skills to conduct effective interviews and gather information for their stories. 1. Active Listening: Paying close attention to what the interviewee is saying is fundamental. 2. Preparation and Research: Thoroughly researching the interview subject beforehand is crucial. 3. Asking Open-Ended Questions: Open-ended questions encourage interviewees to elaborate and provide detailed answers. 4. Probing and Follow-Up Questions: 5. Building rapport: Establishing a rapport with the interviewee can make the conversation more comfortable and productive. 6. Adaptability and Flexibility: 7. Empathy and Sensitivity:

Absolutely research your subjects! I always hated Larry King saying he didn't research his subjects so he had curiosity about them going in. That honestly just sounds like laziness to me. If you don't research, you just ask surface questions & you run the risk of embarrassing but avoidable moments like King saying to Jerry Seinfeld, "They didn't cancel you. You canceled them" when asking him about the end of SEINFELD or Danny Pudi explaining, "Larry, I'm on DUCK TALES" when King said a private jet was a luxury.

Active listening is very important and research in the area of interviewing. This will help journalists to get the information.

I always talk to different experts before I interview someone. Especially political discussions and interpretation of legal matters requires different perspectives. You should be ready to challenge your interviewees. You have to be open minded too. You should have an idea on interviewee' perspective as well.

I always try to have 10-12 possible questions thought out & listed before I talk to someone. I cross them off as I go and occasionally write down follow up questions as I think of them in the moment. If they're engaging, thought-provoking questions, that can carry you through an hour of conversation. If your subject is less vocal or on the reticent side, you're going to have to vamp a bit.

A big thing I try to do in interviews is look for connections. "Oh, you went to this school? So did I!" "You're from this area of the country? I lived there back in the day!" Even just a quick joke to break the ice can be extremely helpful and get people to open up more. Looking for connections can also extend to other areas of your interview, like noticing recurring themes in someone's body of work. "I notice you write about betrayal a lot. Why is that theme so important to you?"

Establishing a rapport is crucial in many interviews; it allows you to simply listen to your interviewee as they can open up to you a little more. The more they talk, the more you can work with.

Yes. Double check information. Check spellings of names. If your subject mentions a movie, find out what year it was released. If they give you a vague description of a story they recall from years before, do your best to track it down. STARMAN writer James Robinson told me about a scene he remembered in an issue of THE FLASH between the Flash and the Shade. When I found the issue in question (Flash v2 #19 if you're curious), I discovered it was actually a scene between the Flash and Captain Cold. I sent a scan of the relevant page to James & asked if that was the scene he was recalling. He confirmed that it was and then adjusted his quote slightly so that it was more accurate.

Get comfortable with silence. Ask a question, a tough question, and let it hang there. You just may get interview gold. Don't fear the silence, embrace it.

I always prefer in person or phone interviews to email, even though it means transcription work for me down the line, because it also means I can ask follow-up questions in real time. And those follow-up questions can lead to all sorts of interesting areas. A while back I interviewed one of the writers of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. He described a script he'd written that was never made into an episode. As he described his plot, I realized he was talking about an unmade episode that was famously known by another title in fandom, and I was able to ask him follow-up questions about it immediately. That wouldn't have happened on an email interview.

Don't feel that you have to follow up immediately if your interviewee goes silent; much like being asked something in a classroom, there will always be a response despite the prolonged delay