ABSTRACT
Broadcasting’s great appeal is that the audience can hear the facts directly from the speaker themselves. Their own words, as well as how they say them, lend greater authority to a report than any number of quotes in next day’s newspaper. Interviewers are brokers of information. Their skill, in exposing the viewpoints of the powerful and influential to public debate and criticism, is one of the major planks in the argument that a free news media is essential to democracy. The hard news interview is usually short, to the point and to illustrate a bulletin or news item. It deals only with important facts, or comment and reaction to those facts. The informational interview is similar to the hard news interview, but need not be restricted to major stories. The investigative interview aims to get behind the facts to discover what really caused an event and sometimes what could be done to prevent a recurrence.
