5 Personal Questions to Ask (Or Not) for a Media Interview

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Mastering the media interview question process is an art. If you’d like to do an interview well, you need to be aware of which questions are appropriate to ask, and how to ask follow-up questions.

We’re going to look at the top personal questions to ask to get you started.

Personal Questions to Ask

Setting up the questions to ask in an interview is one of the most important parts of the interview. Think about the questions you want to ask ahead of time. Recognize who your audience is.

Are you interviewing for a media outlet, publication, or personal project? Form your questions in a way that your audience would be interested in the type of responses.

Bring along your best equipment, and make sure you have a good audio recorder. Well-thought-out questions ensure that you don’t miss out on any important details. Here are the top questions to ask.

Who, Why and What

The key to setting up the interview is knowing the who. What is the background and credentials of the subject? Why are they important to your publication, and how are they adding to your overall brand message?

If the answers don’t resonate, scheduling this interview may be off-brand and require additional consideration.

Goals and Dreams

Now that you know your why, get into the deep stuff in your interview. Ask about their why. If they are the owner of a business, discuss their goals, dreams, and visions for the future of the business, and talk about where they started.

Situational Questions

You’ll learn more about an individual this way than asking them scripted questions.

If you’re trying to get to the character and personality of your subject, asking situational questions get you there the quickest. Ask them to put themselves in the shoes of someone else and inquire about what they would do is that given circumstance.

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are a great way to get more out of your subject. Asking close-ended questions that require a yes or a no, or any other one-word answer don’t lend well to keeping the conversation afloat. Close-ended questions don’t give your subject the opportunity to elaborate.

With open-ended questions, your subject has the freedom to answer with a yes or a no, and then elaborate on their answer. This provides you with more detail to the answer and is a lot more interesting than yes or no.

Statistics 

If you’re looking for a specific response out of someone and hoping to introduce a little shock, posing statistics before asking a question helps. Say you’re asking your subject about the obesity epidemic in America. Telling them a statistic about the percentage of the population with obesity first may elicit a different response than just asking the question.

Be Prepared

Knowing how to ask questions is just as important as knowing which questions to ask. The more you prepare, the better your interview will be.

Take the time to think about the questions you’ll ask, how they reflect your brand, and how to get the most out of your subject.

If you’re interested in learning more about rhetoric and how to use it to your advantage in your interviews, read our blog here!