NPR Radio Analysis

In the NPR radio interview Fresh Air with Terry Gross and Jon Stewart one thing I noticed was how well the interview flowed.Gross did her research on Stewart prior to the interview and knew about his career, his family life at home and personal information about him and because of this, she was able to form her questions around that knowledge.

She asked him questions about how he was able to change The Daily Show into his own politically comical show and how the show changed him as a person. She asked Stewart about the inner workings of his show and how he and his team come about all the news that they do and how they present it to their audience. Gross asked him about how he balances his home life with work when both can be so demanding.

           

She built up her questions by usually giving some sort of anecdote about the topic of the question or had Stewart provide a story related to the question she was going to ask. For following up with secondary questions, Gross would provide more information on the topic to encourage Stewart to continue talking, or she would ask a loaded question that would require a longer answer.

When interviewing, Gross seemed to play to Stewart’s strengths – she would sometimes ask him questions in a joking way so that he would give a comical answer. She never really asked him any questions he wouldn’t or couldn’t answer, though there was one question about sleep aid that Stewart sort of skipped over, but that also could have been a joke as well and Gross merely laughed it off.

Gross and Stewart had good chemistry during the interview, but I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that Stewart is a comedian and can make a joke out of anything. He knew when to be serious and when he could joke to make the audience laugh. There were times during the interview where Gross had to say, “Wait, are you being serious,” or “seriously?” just to get a straight answer out of Stewart, but that’s really the only way things got off track.

           

The one thing I learned through this interview is that one must always be prepared and know about the subject prior to the interview, that way reasonable questions can be asked and more relative answers will be given.