When I am listening to a presenter interviewing some on the radio, sometimes I want them to ask much more searching questions. Other times I think that they are being too harsh on the interviewee.
It must be a very challenging situation to do an interview with someone that you have never met before. It does not matter how much research you have done on the life story, it is rarely easy to find out what their personality is like. We all know that there are people that we hit it off with straight away and others we just do not seem to be able to get on with.
I have heard stories that the people who seem to have the most colourful lives are sometimes the most boring to interview whilst the ones who seem more mundane on the outside have the most fantastic stories to tell.
Now, these challenges may not all be down to the normal personality of the interviewer or interviewee, other factors can often come into play. If either had an argument with their partner or boss earlier in the day, if there was a major traffic jam on the way to the recording studio or many other things will affect the mood of the person.
I imagine that every presenter when they start out wants to interview the top politicians, film stars, their music heros and all the influential people. In reality though they have to start at the bottom rung of the ladder. An interview with the ordinary members of the public about issues of the day, then perhaps the local church leader or policemen.
I like to listen to an interviewer who is flexible and can change the flow of the conversation depending on the responses he is getting. I am sure that, before it starts, they all write down a list of the questions that they are going to ask. However, I often hear them continuing with the obvious questions when I am shouting at the radio for them to pick up on a comment made.
It must be a completely different proposition to carry out an interview with the man in the street who you have not had any chance to do any research on. Yet, strangely enough, these sometimes can be the most exciting to listen to. Sometimes I enjoy the fact that the interviewer is struggling but more often than not, I find out that a lot of ordinary people really do have extraordinary lives.
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