I happened to catch the first ten minutes of Jian Gomeshi’s interview of John Cleese (rhymes with ‘cheese’) on this morning’s edition of CBC Radio’s Q. The interview opened with Mr. Cleese pointing out how much more he enjoys radio interviews over television interviews noting that on radio, the interviewer and interviewee can follow each other’s non-verbal cues and that puts energy into the interview; radio caters to the conversation and relationship. In contrast, television interviews cater to the visual technology, with the people sitting at odd angles to accommodate the viewing audience, making the interviews more “sticky”.
Certainly, as far as media on the web is concerned, when an interviewer is able to limit his or her focus to just managing a microphone and becoming engaged in a conversation, the results are far better (and more interesting) than trying to become engaged in a conversation while keeping someone in frame.
