Communications and Media

Interview is an excellent source of expanding our understanding regarding a particular person, subject or issue. Professionals who shoulder the responsibility of mass communication use the technique of interviewing as a source of generating insights about people and issues related to public interest.

There are different research techniques or in other words, methods of interviewing. The major ones as used by the professionals in the field of communication and media are as follows
Topical interviews  The main aim of this interview method is to get the sequence of happenings and facts related to an event. These interviews are done when there is breaking news like an accident, fire, etc. or when some important event has been organized like conference, concert etc.

Evaluation Interview  This interview method is used to evaluate whether the spokesperson is giving the right picture or not. Example of this method can be the interview of a political leader regarding the steps he has taken after a major accident, natural calamity etc.

Life Histories  This research technique is used to know not only about the life history of a personality but also a monument, art form, ethnic group etc.

Qualitative Interview  While doing a qualitative interview, the interviewer has to study a topic in detail in order to be able to ask the relevant questions and to successfully grasp what is being delivered by the interviewee. Also, it is important for the interviewer to be well prepared for this kind of interview because he has to weigh the authenticity of the given information. This research technique is used to interview politicians, industrialists, artists or any other public figure.
Cultural Interview  The purpose of this kind of interview is to study a particular, norm, behavior or culture of a group of people. The reports of this kind of interview are mostly written in the form of features.

Focus group Interview  This research technique helps in getting viewpoints of a group of people belonging to a certain category like the educationists, the theatre owners, Hindus etc. Generally the group of people indulge in a discussion related to their interest area in which the media professionals are invited to be a part of. The media professionals get many viewpoints of people of the same trade or community on an issue that might be of interest to the public at large.

Though interviewing might seem to be similar to our day to day conversations but the media professionals have immense responsibilities in order to bring the account of their conversation in front of the people. They have to always abide by the ethics of the trade and can never distort the gathered information. They have the responsibility of being the eyes, ears, nose and senses of the public at large and they have to present the gathered information as accurately as possible.