The Elements of an interview Are the interviewer, interviewee, message and questions, context and medium.
A interview Is a conversation where questions are asked and answers are received. This conversation is mainly between two people, one person taking the role of interviewer (a) and the other person the interviewee (a). Although the interview is not limited to only two people.
The interviewer is the person who asks the questions, which may have been previously planned, so that the person interviewed responds, and obtain the desired information.
Generally the context in which an interview is usually associated is only to the journalistic field, in which the interview aims to collect information for a news, report, research or public interest. 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, performing a job interview , Where the interviewer can be an expert in the area in which they are recruiting, or qualified to recruit the most qualified people for the job.
In addition, this type of conversation also takes place in the psychology , Where the specialist (psychologist or psychiatrist) makes a conversation with his patient, where he can obtain valuable information that can be used for the subsequent treatment by which the patient went to Psychological help .
In addition, the interview can occur in another variety of areas, such as criminology, law, science, statistics, etc. Due to its usefulness to obtain generally reliable and first-hand information, because the interviewees are persons to whom it is convenient to perform such interview.
Main elements of the interview
1 - Interviewer
Due to the wide variety of areas in which the interview can be put into practice, the interviewer will not necessarily have to have outstanding interpersonal skills, but preferably sufficient knowledge in the subject to be addressed.
However, in the case of interviews in the journalistic field, although the person who performs the interview can be framed in a common theme, not always have sufficient knowledge about the subject that is the responsibility of the interviewee, which is why his journalistic skills Will be of great importance for the success of the interview.
For example, the Spanish journalist and interviewer Joaquin Soler Serrano , Who, among others, directed and presented the program Thoroughly , Interviewed personalities of letters, culture and science.
2 - Interviewee
The person interviewed is, of course, the person who will respond to the questions asked by the interviewer. In addition, on many occasions, who will directly or indirectly establish the subject of the interview, according to the context of the interview.
That is, in a context of journalistic interview, the work or area that is the responsibility of the person interviewed, will usually dictate the course of the interview, because the questions will surround topics related to that area.
For example, in an interview with the president of a nation, the questions are most likely to be related to that country's policy or to international politics. Similarly, if you interview a footballer, football will be a crucial topic in the interview.
However, the interviewer may also dictate the course of the interview in the interest of this interviewer. Being able to be more interested in the personal life of the person interviewed, who generally can decide whether or not to answer the questions.
3 - Message
The message refers to the information obtained through the interview, through various filters, such as the interviewer's intention, the interviewee's responses and their willingness to reveal certain information.
Thus, the information obtained in an interview can be true or not, besides there are nuances in the veracity of this one, being able to 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 medium of communication, such as the press or a news channel, may be biased towards a certain political position or ideology, so that they can provide information that although not necessarily false, could be manipulated in favor of their interests, Personal or collective.
4 - Context
It has been mentioned 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, 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 information is not always completely real, it will be easier to judge the truth of the information through documentation the interview.
For this reason the interview can comprehend 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 performed to know the opinions, qualities or abilities of a person, without a pre-established purpose or filter, as could occur in the process of admission to a university or educational center.
5 - Medium
The interview will need the use of language to be carried out, due to its character of communicative process. But this does not mean that direct interaction of two or more people is required to be performed, and various means may be employed for the execution of the latter.
The growing progress in media And telecommunications have increasingly extended the barriers and limits of the interview, being less and less necessary to share the same physical space between interviewer and interviewer.
This is especially noticeable with the advancement in video-calling technologies, where, with an internet connection and suitable audio and video devices, a quality interview can be conducted between individuals at any distance.
Likewise, the interaction in an interview will not necessarily be direct, and the interviewer may have a series of already established questions, which the respondent will answer later, and be documented, either in audio, video or text, to be used by According to its objective.
References
- Interview journalism. (2017, May 24). Recollection of es.wikipedia.org
- Interview. (2017, July 6). Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org
- Interviews. Retrieved from yparhub.berkeley.edu.