The elements of an interview are the interviewer, interviewee, message and questions, context and medium. An interview is a conversation where questions are asked and answers are received.
This conversation takes place mainly between two people, one person taking the role of interviewer and the other person the role of interviewee. Although the interview is not limited to just two people.
The / the interviewer (a) is the person who asks the questions, which may have been previously planned, so that the interviewee answers them, and obtain the desired information.
Generally, the context in which an interview is usually associated is only the journalistic field, in which the interview has the objective of collecting information for a news item, report, investigation or the interest of the public. But this is not the only area in which an interview can be put into practice.
The interview can take place in various situations, for various purposes. Another area in which interviews are used is in a company to recruit workers, conducting a job interview, where the interviewer can be an expert in the area in which they are recruiting, or qualified to recruit to the people best qualified for the job.
In addition, this type of conversation also takes place in psychology, where the specialist (psychologist or psychiatrist) conducts a conversation with his patient, where he can obtain valuable information that can be used for the subsequent treatment for which the patient came to help. psychological.
Furthermore, the interview can occur in a variety of other areas, such as criminology, law, science, statistics, etc. Due to its usefulness to obtain generally reliable and first-hand information, since the interviewees are the people who should be interviewed.
Main elements of the interview
1 - Interviewer
Due to the wide variety of areas in which the interview can be put into practice, the person in charge of asking the questions will not necessarily have to possess outstanding interpersonal skills, but, preferably, sufficient knowledge on the subject to be covered.
However, in the case of interviews in the journalistic field, although the person conducting the interview may be framed in a common theme, they will not always have sufficient knowledge about the subject that concerns the interviewee, which is why their journalistic skills will be of great importance to the success of the interview.
For example, the Spanish journalist and interviewer Joaquin Soler Serrano, who among others directed and presented the program A fondo, interviewed personalities from letters, culture and science.
2 - Interviewed
The person being interviewed is, naturally, the person who will answer the questions asked by the interviewer. In addition, on many occasions, who will directly or indirectly establish the topic of the interview, according to the context of this.
That is, in the context of a journalistic interview, the work or area that is the responsibility of the interviewee will generally dictate the course of the interview, since the questions will be around topics related to that area.
For example, in an interview with the president of a nation, the questions most likely relate to the politics of that country, or to international politics. Similarly, if a footballer is interviewed, football will be a crucial topic in the interview.
However, the interviewer can also dictate the course of the interview according to the interest of this (a). Being able to be more interested in the personal life of the person interviewed, who can generally decide whether or not to answer the questions.
3 - Message
The message refers to the information obtained through the interview, passing through various filters, such as the intention of the interviewer, the responses of the person interviewed and their availability to reveal certain information.
Thus, the information obtained in an interview may or may not be true, in addition to there being nuances in its veracity, and it may be manipulated to some extent by the interviewer or the interviewee.
That is, the interviewer can lead to a certain message through the questions he asks, and the person interviewed may or may not provide real information.
For example, a communication medium, such as the press or a news channel, may be biased towards a certain political position or ideology, so they can provide information that, although not necessarily false, could be manipulated in favor of their interests, personal or collective.
4 - Context
The great variety of situations in which the interview can be used as a resource to obtain or filter relevant information according to the area of interest has been mentioned, which will not be reduced only to journalism.
The interview offers the advantage of obtaining information given by a person, without going through intermediaries and being distorted by them, and, although it has been mentioned that the information is not always completely real, it will be easier to judge its veracity through documentation of the interview.
Therefore, the interview can understand any situation in which a series of questions and answers can be useful. For example, the use of the interview to judge the innocence or not of a person suspected of having committed a crime.
Although the interview can also be carried out to find out the opinions, qualities or capacities of a person, without a pre-established purpose or filter, as could happen in the admission process to a university or educational center.
5 - Medium
- Journalistic interview. (2017, May 24). Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
- Interview. (2017, July 6). Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
- Interviews. Recovered from yparhub.berkeley.edu.