Doctoral defence: Viivika Eljand-Kärp “Effective Interviewing Practices in News Interviews. Achieving Comprehensive Topic Coverage in Expert and Experience Interviews”

On 1 April at 10:15 Viivika Eljand-Kärp will defend her doctoral thesis “Effective Interviewing Practices in News Interviews. Achieving Comprehensive Topic Coverage in Expert and Experience Interviews” for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Media and Communication).

Supervisors:  
Professor Halliki Harro-Loit, University of Tartu
Tenured Associate Professor Anu Masso, Tallinn University of Technology

Opponents:    
Professor Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Malmö Ülikool (Sweden)
Associate Professor Indrek Treufeldt, Tallinn University

Summary

News interviews are everywhere – from tuning in to the morning radio on your way to work to unwinding in front of the evening television. Although the news interview, as one of the most prominent genres in journalism, has received considerable attention from journalism researchers, the focus has so far been primarily on one subtype of news interview – the confrontational accountability interview, which often features politicians and responsible officials as interviewees. To address the analytical gap of other types of news interviews, my research explored the opportunities for journalists in unedited and/or live expert and experience interviews to enhance their questioning techniques, aiming for a comprehensive discussion for the interviewer, interviewee, and audience.

Based on a qualitative study involving qualitative content and conversation analysis of 50 broadcasted news and conversation interviews, content analysis of 13 research interviews with journalists and experts, and content analysis of 4 written research interviews with journalists, I described journalists' interviewing techniques and respondents' reactions to them and proposed methods to improve effectiveness in questioning. The results revealed that while both experience and expert interviews foster strong cooperation from interviewees, interviews often provide non-comprehensive coverage of topics. This is due to issues such as shifting from one topic to another during the conversation, issues concerning question scope, confusion regarding the roles of participants in the interview, and shortcomings in applying active listening techniques. To avoid these and other pitfalls and to conduct more adept interviews, it is crucial to be aware of the components that constitute effective interaction between the journalist and the interviewee. Subsequently, journalists can analyze and enhance their practices more precisely. Skillful interviewing is not an innate ability, rather it requires consistent and conscious training.