ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses why interviews are so important in science journalism; this is followed by the basic rules of interviewing. In science journalism, interviews serve a dual purpose. The profile is another type of feature article that heavily draws on interviews. Profiles that revolve around one person rarely rely on just one interview. In science journalism, the most common problematic interviewees are media-inexperienced scientists who have difficulties expressing complex issues in graspable ways. In science journalism, study authors can be a good starting point, but be sure to also interview independent researchers that can comment on these findings. Scientists often have their own agendas and try to advertise their work due to motivations like raising funds. Also, keep in mind that interviewing the same number of scientists from each camp does not automatically guarantee real journalistic balance, especially when one camp has substantially fewer members than the other.
