Can you say something more about that…?

There seems to be an epidemic in media…. An epidemic of lazy, tentative questioning. No doubt because people - myself included - like to think that producing a podcast, or interviewing people might be easy.

No question embodies this epidemic more than the question which begins along these lines…. “can you say something more about….?”

It’s a bad question. It removes the onus from the interviewer to illicit insight and revelation from their guests. Removes the need for them to manufacture the conditions for answers which wouldn’t happen without them. The things that make great interviewers and great journalists, great. An interview is a two way street. An engagement between two parties.

This question reduces the role of the the interviewer to a person issuing the prompts for a set of easy, pre-recorded answers.

Once you notice it, you’ll see and hear it everywhere. In podcasts. In panel discussions on Conference Stages. On videos on youtube.