The first important subject that I saw in these two articles was when they brought up the topic of knowing what you want to know. Without this journalism and people alike would not have any idea what they want in an interview. You need to prepare yourself and know the questions that you want to ask beforehand.
Second thing I saw was the part where it talks about overestimating your data or information that you have. People like to make something out of nothing and sometimes come up with irrelevant facts. For example, ESPN is notorious for doing this, they always come up with facts about players that are so out there that they have nothing to do with what’s going on now. When you have data make sure it’s relevant and make sure that it’s what the people want and what you want to be telling the people.
Sven – Yes, it is true you need to go into an interview with a plan and try to find out what you want to know. But you also have to go in with an open mind and be prepared to go in another direction when something unexpected happens.
I love your ESPN example and irrelevant data. Do you have any examples?
One good example that I saw the other day was that out of the last 12 Super Bowl Champions, 11 have worn white jerseys. Whenever I heard that I really just kept thinking, why is this even here? Yeah it is interesting but it was so irrelevant when they brought it up because they were talking about the skill of both teams and all of a sudden they came out and said that.