The transnational diffusion of interviewing and the interview

Nowadays, interviewing is the central practice of journalism. Gathering information, statements, and experiences from sources is key to reporting. It is “a purposeful act that is initiated and intended by the journalist” in which they set out to question a person and motivate them to make statements about an issue. Importantly, both parties involved know that the journalist has the intention of publishing a story, turning a private conversation into a public account. The eventual text “refers to the mutual interaction and thus transports elements of the primary situation” ( Kött 2004 : 24). Contrary to simply writing down what others say, which was commonplace before interviewing was ‘invented’ in the context of nineteenth-century American journalism, asking (critical) questions provided journalists with more control over news discourse.