Guide for the Preparation of a newspaper interview

For the journalist, the interview means a primary tool for information. This is a specific genre that takes different forms and can address issues dissimilar.

Classification according to themes and purposes:

Information: Data or information obtained for the news story. The statements interspersed in the body of the note or the entire interview.

Opinion: obtained comments on news or current affairs and / or interest. Will seek the opinion of specialists in the subjects to complete the note or word format to publish these interview.

Of resemblance, is the most extensive. Here the most interesting part of the interview, the interviewee. It shows the reader various aspects of the public figure.

Notably, in an interview, respondents may be several. For example, a football team, a panel discussion, programs, roundtables, a press conference, and so on.

The phases

The guidelines set forth below, work as a method of our work.

Advance preparation: Do not forget the goal. Conduct a preliminary research on the interviewee can deepen and enrich the contents of the conversation and is required to uphold the rules of courtesy and get a better disposition of the respondent. We look at newspaper archives, libraries and archives in general. All that helps to know the interviewee is positive at this stage.

Questionnaire and previous agenda: You must prepare an agenda with possible questions. Do not forget any subject. The writing of the issues to take into account allows us to realize all that we ask and we organize working time and the information we have collected.

The cross-examination: A good journalist should know to ask, but even more cross-examine. When the response is incomplete, or the subject matter can be deepened, the interviewer should not fail to cross-examine. While there is a previous agenda, certain questions arise from the same interview, as it works and have the same starting point the interviewee's answers.

Transcription and editing: The interview is a hybrid genre where there is a conversation and scheduled and whose recipient is the final reader. After the hearing, the record must conform to the written message. As the reader was not, of course, present the talk should be taken into account those factors that went with it and incorporate them into printed text. Care must be the meaning of the words used and the spontaneity characteristic of orality. The correction does not have to distort the message content.

Parts of the interview

The resulting text is organized as follows:

Input or presentation: In general, these are the first two paragraphs. It has the character to be interviewed. Circumstantial aspects can be incorporated here: the context in which the meeting occurs prior or observations that contribute to the running of the conversation.

Body: the text is rearranged according to the importance of the issues to make it more interesting.

Conclusion or auction: the last paragraph closes and completes the central idea of ​​the note.