Emailed questions can hardly be called an interview.
They lack the advantage of a follow up question in addition to the inability to find other lines of questioning from a specific answer. Also, for any type of hard news story that is not looking for just statistics giving people too much time to answer questions gives them enough time to paint themselves in an often biased good light.
Personal interviews have the advantage of body language hints and twitching eyes, but I have found that most people are more comfortable, and natural over the phone.
Think about it. They are in their office or home, relaxed, talking to a person that is not invading their space. They may be in their underwear, or playing with their nuts for that matter, the point is that they can be comfortable and do what ever they want to be doing.
Also, you are in your own space when hosting a phone interview. You can flip through folders, fact checking, referencing what they are saying. You have the freedom to open up a google page to research a topic as they are telling you about it. In addition to this, you can be playing with your nuts, and they wouldnt ever know.
But seriously, I have had some seriously long interviews both in person and on the phone. I remember one time I had to pee sooooooooo bad while in person, but I was interviewing a long winded mayor about a controversial land swap. I started tuning him out and my face turned red with my effort of holding it before I finally excused myself to use the toilet. If you hadnt guessed the mayoral interview story leads into a story of a late night at the office, I was the last one to leave, when I got caught up in a two hour interview dealing with a identity theft case. I had just gotten a Big Gulp, and drank the whole thing while on the interview. and yes, I peepeed in my empty cup. Yep. And I am not ashamed to admit it.
What kind of interviews are you doing? |
