Discussion: Questions you want an interviewer to ask

Following up on a comment that Canadian made in a different discussion topic---What questions would you want an interviewer to ask you if you had done really well at a major orienteering competionion? The idea of this thread is to generate some questions that might be given to the media/interviewer so they have to do less preparation and hopefully, may result in a better interview and possibly even, more of them. Not that I'll ever be interviewed, here are a few questions I would like them to ask:

What is orienteering?

When you are competing, how much of the time is walking versus running?

Describe your training and preparation.

So, you run through the woods as fast as you can while trying to keep track of where you are and at the same time, plan where you want to go.. How do you do that?

Running in the woods must be different than running on a track or the roads. Could a really fast track runner keep up with you in the woods?

What do you do when you come to cliffs or swamps or other obstacles?

You're not a politician, are you Hammer?

No but our adventure running kids program is expanding with full programs of mud, navigation, running and adventure in Hamilton, K-W and Niagara this autumn.

:-)

I got interviewed by a local newspaper about an adventure race I was about to compete in once. I was completely unprepared because she called me at work and I was not expecting anyone to call me at all. As a result, the interview went kind of on a downhill slide.

Pity you're not a skiier.

Not easy to reduce orienteering to soundbites...

Easier for rogaining. Standard response is "Do you know what orienteering is?" If the answer is "yes" then you respond with "Rogaining is orienteering on steriods"

I'll second Hammer's suggestion. When I talk to radio or TV reporters in my job, I try to have three main points and three different ways of making each of those points. I write them out in a grid and practice them. It also helps to ask the reporters what they need or want.

You mean, rogainers are orienteers on painkillers and caffeine pills.

Carl is on the right track. These morning talk show hosts like Kirk Stoodley of Ottawa's CTV Morning do not have the research budget that the national networks have, particularly the CBC. Well they have no research budget. Programs like that are on the air because the terms of their broadcast license say the station must do so many hours of local programming a week. It does not have to be good programmmingThe easier you can make it for them to fill the interview time the easier it will go for you and the better your message will be.
If you are asked or if you wangle an interview on a local TV or radio show send them information/ questions/ Internet links at least the day before.
Key question to get in: What makes orienteering so special for you?

@ndobbs - yeah, that too. :-) Depends on whether you're a lunatic like tRicky or not. I'm more into red wine and Tim Tams these days.

On a serious note, even the most eloquent of speakers can come across poorly in a TV or radio interview. Some people just don't come across electronic media very well. Tone, inflection, pitch and speed of delivery are all important it seems. Some media personalities might be absolute bone heads but can deliver lines very well and appear competent, confident and genuine.

Knowing your subject inside and out is not enough. A friend of mine is very clever in the field of mathematics and a lively personality but put him in front of an audience to explain something and he is better than a sleeping pill.

Are Tim Tams OX's answer to Canada's Timbits?

What's the audience for this - is it a national program or more local?

I think Tim Tams are only relevant to a local audience. Also rogaining's a lot easier than resisting the caramel Tim Tams in the fridge at work everytime I've opened it so far today.

Painkillers and caffeine pills, are you weak man? Go hard or, umm, go somewhere else.

Sound bites need to be part of a coherent message. I always have a chat with the interviewer before the interview to ask what they are looking for, then offer to send a short list of questions that build a narrative. A simple story has a much better chance of catching the imagination. Each question will have a sound bite answer, but it needs to sound like a conversation, not like it has descended from the sky into an unrelated interview. Then you sound like... a politican.

But you must have an interviewer who allows you to speak at all, rather than filling airtime with his own voice trying to field the next question when he has not given the interviewee time to even answer the first question. He asked Emily a few good questions, like how she came to go to France, etc., the answer to which would have been interesting and which I suspect, Emily had a succinct answer for, but he was seeming only interested in directing the attention to himself. He never thought about what she was saying while she was saying it. Emily has great people skills, a cheerful and intelligent aspect, and lots of experience to share. She was prepared to show her map and put some substance into the interview but he never gave her the chance.

All that said, we need to ask ourselves what message to we want to put out there about our sport--surely more than what orienteering is--we need to get across the excitement, the thrills, the intensity, the need to really connect with the world around you while you are running. So how about: "What do you think about while you are doing an orienteering race?" "How is orienteering racing different from a trail race?" "What do you do when you get LOST?"

We need to emerge from the somewhat static image of the sport being all about reading the map and using the compass to find our way, to getting across the rushes of adrenaline we experience when we compete.

Actually just appearing and being fit, happy and nice and not an overweight mustachioed fifty yo in pyjamas is already doing a whole lot of good.

The actual questions and responses are somewhat incidental.

I still shudder when I picture one of our Sport Development Officers, who in the 1990s used to turn up to schools for their sessions dressed in awful green orienteering pants tucked into her pale green Silva gaiters, wearing her orienteering club's t-shirt (tucked in!) that may have appealed to the elderly types in that club after a night on the port - and topped with a floppy hat.

Hi Kids, this sport is really cool. Really.

Having said that, she was a great instructor - but a quality first impression is all-important.

I have learned through running my theatre company that you need to be able to give the "elevator pitch" - to get someone to your show - this means tell them why they should see it in 30 seconds or less. You have to hook them fast. We need to and can do this for orienteering.

By the way Hammer is right. Answer the question quickly and then tell your story - it is what I do for theatre and what I do for orienteering. The hosts would rather you talk then them, and if you can be more interesting than them - even better.

Next time I am interviewed on the radio, I will try all these tips.

What, painkillers and caffeine pills? Something harder?

Preferably sleeping pills if tRicky was about to be interviewed - it'd be a better view of the sport of MTBO. Good luck in Bulgaria tRicky!

It's Hungaria you n00b.

Pah, it's on wheels, put it in Greenland and I'll still stuff it up!