Interview Questions

Interviews differ depending on the style of questions as it changes the way the interviewee responds. The three types of questions are open, closed and leading.

Open:

Open questions tend to start with the 5 Ws and H (what, why, when, where, who and how), especially what, why and how as they get the most detail out of the interviewee. Open questions are the most commonly used type of question and are used in various different interviews, focussing on a range of subjects, from celebrity based, entertainment to hard news as it allows the interviewer to get more detailed answers on the topics. The strength of using open questions in an interview is that they are qualitative responses. This means that the interviewee can give more reasoning and detail in a single question. However, the weaknesses of closed questions are that they are not quantitative, which means that they cannot be put into a graph or a chart in order to show a visual representation on people's responses. However, in hard news, they sometimes uses less open questions as politicians often go off on tangents to avoid the original question, which makes it difficult to edit afterwards as they only have a set time they can broadcast. An example of an open question that is commonly used in a promotional interview is "why did you decide to go on tour?" because it can't be answered with a one worded and will give the interviewer a longer response with detail.

Closed:

Closed questions are the opposite of an open question as they are answered with one worded answers, usually starting the question with "do". However, they can start with the 5 Ws, particularly when, where and what, as they don't require detailed responses and can be answered in a single word. The strength of using closed questions in an interview is that they are quantitative, meaning that you can retrieve data from the interviewee's response. This is why they are effective in Vox Pops as it doesn't take up too much of the public's time and the interviewee can produce a visual representation of the public's answers in a graph or chart. The weakness of a closed question is that they are not qualitative, therefore, the interviewer can't get an in depth response, meaning they have less to provide the audience with. Closed questions don't work in entertainment interviews as the audience want as much detail in celebrity gossip as possible and they won't get any with a closed question.

Leading:

A leading question is a question that prompts and encourages an answer wanted by the interviewer. For example, if someone asked "do you have any problems with your boss?" rather than "tell me about your relationship with your boss?", it implies that there is a problem with the interviewee's relationship with their boss, encouraging them to focus on the negative issues with their boss. They aren't used very often in interviews because the interviewer will want to get the truth from the interviewee, rather than prompting them to reply in certain way. However, in hard news interviews, they may be more likely to use a leading question as politicians are known for avoiding the question, therefore a leading question may keep the interview on track.