The Art of the Interview: How Delight Journalism and Film Students Learn to Ask Great Questions

By Delight Technical College | School of Media & AI | 2026

Whether producing a news story, a documentary film, or a podcast episode, the interview is one of the most fundamental and most difficult skills in media production. A great interview produces compelling, revealing, and quotable content; a poor interview produces flat, guarded, unusable material regardless of how interesting the subject’s actual experience or knowledge might be. Delight Technical College treats interview technique as a cross-cutting skill, taught across both the Digital Journalism and Film Production programmes.

🎙️ Preparation- The Foundation of a Great Interview

• Researching the subject thoroughly before the interview- understanding their background, expertise, and likely perspective
• Developing a clear sense of what information or story the interview needs to produce
• Preparing specific, open-ended questions while remaining flexible to follow unexpected and valuable directions
• Anticipating sensitive areas and planning how to approach them respectfully but directly

❓ The Art of Question Construction

Open vs Closed Questions:

Closed questions invite short, factual answers (‘Did you attend the meeting?’). Open questions invite expansive, revealing responses (‘Walk me through what happened at the meeting’). Skilled interviewers use closed questions to establish facts efficiently and open questions to elicit the depth and detail that make for compelling content.

Avoiding Leading Questions:

A leading question suggests its own answer (‘Don’t you think the government failed here?’) rather than allowing the subject to offer their genuine perspective. Skilled interviewers ask neutral questions that invite honest response rather than confirmation of a predetermined narrative.

The Follow-Up Question:

Often the most valuable moment in an interview is not the planned question but the unplanned follow-up that responds to something the subject just said (pursuing an unexpected, revealing thread rather than rigidly moving to the next scripted question).

🤝 Building Rapport and Trust

• Starting with easier, rapport-building questions before moving into more challenging territory
• Active listening- genuinely engaging with what the subject says rather than simply waiting for your turn to ask the next question
• Managing silence- allowing pauses rather than rushing to fill them, often producing the subject’s most considered and valuable responses
• Respecting boundaries while still pursuing important information- a balance that requires both empathy and journalistic determination

📹 Specific Considerations for On-Camera Interviews

• Framing and positioning the subject for a comfortable, natural on-camera presence
• Managing nervousness- many subjects are unaccustomed to being filmed and need reassurance
• B-roll planning- capturing supplementary footage that can be edited alongside interview answers
• Continuity of energy across multiple takes if a question needs to be re-asked

🎧 Specific Considerations for Audio/Podcast Interviews

• Audio quality awareness- managing microphone positioning and environment for clean sound
• Conversational pacing suited to audio-only consumption, where visual cues cannot support understanding
• Managing ‘umms’ and verbal fillers- knowing when to let natural speech patterns remain authentic versus when they need to be addressed

🎓 Interview Practice at Delight

Both Digital Journalism and Film Production students conduct numerous real practice interviews throughout their studies, receiving direct, specific feedback on their questioning technique, rapport-building, and ability to extract compelling, usable content.

“The best content in any documentary, news story, or podcast almost always comes from a moment in an interview when the subject said something they did not plan to say. At Delight, we train interviewers who create the conditions for those moments.”

📍 Delight Technical College | Muindi Mbingu Street, Opposite Jevanjee Gardens, Nairobi | +254 722 533 771 | www.delight.ac.ke