Why Oprah is a Great Interviewer - Assignment Example

Considered as one of the best living American writers, McCarthy has written 10 novels in the span of four decades but never once was he interviewed on television. This is what makes this Oprah interview special. Because this is a first for McCarthy (Winfrey, 2008), we might expect that he will be uncomfortable and might find it difficult to answer some of the questions. To prevent this from happening, Oprah went to Santa Fe where McCarthy is working so that he will be in a familiar setting and reduce the anxiety since there are no other people in the room (except for the cameraman, of course).

Moreover, Oprah chose to open the interview with the obvious question: Why did McCarthy never have any TV interview? This was something that the world-renowned author can easily address this because he probably rehearsed this a number of times in different interviews before. From this question, Oprah went on to ask subtle, more personal questions so as to understand how McCarthy works and what inspires him to do what he does. Oprah’s interview had a good combination of direct, open-ended questions.

The progression of her questions was well-timed, starting with a question pertaining to the author’s work before going into details which will force the interviewee to “think deep” and “reach into the heart” to find the answers. Aside from the questions, Oprah also showed a real interest in the information being provided by the interviewee. She looks directly at McCarthy and she provides her own reactions to his responses. While I am pretty sure that she had an interview agenda, she does not have it written down, she has remembered all the questions she wants to ask, but she phrases it in the same language used by her interviewee.

This way, she improves the communication between them, and it also allows the interviewee to feel that Oprah was really listening to what he was saying.