Interview Questions for your News Story

Here is a list of six types of questions to keep handy to interview for your next news story!

1/ Open-ended questions:

Open-ended questions carry us through the interview process best and provide us with the best information.

These will be very helpful for people who are not used to being interviewed

2/ Close-ended questions:

Avoid! However, it can be good for certain situations like confirming a piece of information, seeking support, cornering the person being interviewed.

3/ Hypothetical questions

“Before we cast the ballot for you, what would you do when…?”

Typically stay away from it. These questions tend to be useful for election seasons. It can also be good for sports interviews (for upcoming games).

4/ Agree/Disagree questions

Also not used very often. Start with the quote and asking the person if a particular issue or idea is something they can get behind.

5/ Probing question

These are Follow-up questions to something that has already been said.

6/ Personal questions: most difficult questions to ask. These questions aim towards personal life, brings up bad memory, accounts of a horrific event, etc.

It is especially hard to find the right approach if the interview involves death or tragedy that is accidental. Build up the trust as much as you can! Try to place the hard questions towards the middle or the end.