TV Interviews Anticipate Questions

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When I was a full time journalist, I always prepared 10 questions for the interview, whether it was radio, television, newspapers or magazines.

I had producers and editors that liked the idea. In one radio station, my producer was always amused when politicians begged to be on our daily morning show. It was that popular.

How did you make him answer that question? I used to get that a lot and listeners did not believe me when I said it was in the ten questions. Politicians have media advisors, who know that it’s not a good idea to reject controversial questions.

The list of questions is like a coin. It has two sides: good for you, the person doing the interview and your guests.

1. Guests are comfortable because they know the line of questioning. They think there are 10 questions but the interviewer knows it’s just one.

2. Because they’re comfortable, guests can reveal unknown personal or business mini secrets. This contributes to the interviewer’s  popularity.

3. Interviewer can anticipate answers because questions are based on thorough research.

4. Guests can convince the audience that they are good guys (although they are bad) because they got questions before going on air.

5. Interviewer can only correct misinformation, if he did thorough research.

Exercise: Try it on your podcast.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

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