What Will Zoom Do To “Good Tape”?

Now that most people have become used to Zoom and other video conference platforms, the pool of available interviewees for podcasts has surely gone up. And that’s a good thing, no doubt. More stories can be told and a wider range of people will be there to tell them.

But I wonder what effect our move towards video-call-as-default will have on the interviews themselves. I mean especially for the kind of long, sprawling interviews you’d conduct for a narrative podcast, where all you’re looking for is a couple of minutes of “great tape” you can edit and use later. 

Does video make great tape more or less likely? My intuition is that it would be less likely, because the interviewee is probably more guarded and more self-conscious. 

But I’m not sure. Perhaps a little discomfort is good. Perhaps the mental energy required to focus and interact visually also allows your unconscious thoughts to seep out through your words without you noticing.

And what about the interviewer? Does having to think about the camera make you a worse listener, less likely to notice an interesting detour to take in the conversation? 

That might ultimately depend on the personality of the interviewer. Getting great tape often does anyway.