The Media Interview

Here’s the most detailed explanation I’ve found by Paula Abdul herself (posted on MeeVee), for her odd behaviour in those recent TV satellite interviews. Accepting her explanation here still doesn’t answer why she or her handlers didn’t stop the interview and say ‘there’s a problem or I’m so tired I can’t do this, etc.’ Whatever [...]

On January 5, a dinner was held in honour of Max Mayfield who retired as director of the National Hurricane Center. The Palm Beach Post reports that in his thank you speech, Mayfield recounted his worst-ever media interview, in which a fill-in CNN anchor noted the radar loop behind him and asked, “Is that a [...]

Preparing for a live television interview is tough. Even if you’ve had a lot of experience on TV, every situation is different enough – even down to the way you’re seated – that you need to be well prepared to handle what comes at you. Even then, there’s always something more… The other day a [...]

You often hear Zen Buddhists say that the answer is in the question. And sometimes you’ll hear interviewers taking this quite literally, as in this example from Australian breakfast show host Alan Jones during a 2004 interview with treasurer Peter Costello: Treasurer do you ever shake your head during campaigns like this and wonder what [...]

“…live interviews [are] performance masquerading as conversation.” – Mike Nichols quoted by his wife, Diane Sawyer, in a January/February 1995 CJR article Yakety-Yak: The Lost Art of Interviewing by Tom Rosenstiel

Came across this great anecdote in an article on interview techniques by Deborah Potter, Executive Director of NewsLab. It’s a perfect example of how narrow, closed questions can keep you from getting the information you need. Robert Siegel, who works for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., tells the story of an interview he did [...]

Just saw one of these TV interviews this morning – you know the kind – the guest breathlessly rattles out an answer and the interviewer has to cut in to ask the next question and you can see or feel the guest literally shaking with anticipation to jump in again and continue talking. Often they [...]

Rob Amberg of of Cushman/Amberg Communications in St. Louis posted an interesting piece about Emotional Branding on his Transom blog (love the name – visit the blog to get the background on it). He talks about how Matt Miller, the CEO of Playworld Systems uses ads and media exposure to promote his company by attaching [...]

There’s a lot of emphasis on giving short answers for audio or video interviews – the all-important soundbite – but here’s a good reminder not to make your answers too short! Try to answer in full sentences as it makes it easier for them to edit. So if they say “What percentage of employees do [...]

Oh those awkward opening moments… During live or recorded media interviews, should the interviewer welcome a guest and if so, what’s a good way to do it? What should the guest say in response, if anything? What if there are multiple guests? I recently saw an awkward TV moment where the three guests got into [...]