Make sure the item you wish to cite actually qualifies as an interview. Some types of interviews include face-to-face interviews, phone or live video chat conversations, radio TV broadcast interviews, and instant messaging interviews. Because of their less spontaneous nature, questions answered by letter or email may need to be cited in a different format. If you find an interview published in a book or magazine, you may be required to create a citation for the entire publication, not just the interview. Ask your professor to clarify any questions you might have.
Introduce the interviewee in the body of your paper. Regardless of the style you are using, you should always include a brief description of the person being interviewed and why she is qualified to speak with authority on the subject.
Format your bibliography reference in the following way:
Last Name, First Name. Type of Interview. Day Month Year.
For example:
Smith, John. Interview. 22 Aug 2008.
Or:
Jones, Susie. Telephone Interview. 3 July 2004.
(Personal interviews are referred to simply as "interview." All other interviews must have a descriptive word such as telephone, Internet chat, etc.)
Add any necessary descriptors to your citation. If your intervewee is not well known, include a brief description following the name. You should also note if you used video or audio recording in your interview. For example:
Smith, Susan. [Survivor of the Titanic shipwreck.] Phone Interview (recorded on audiotape). 10 December 2001.
Give detailed information for interviews that have been made public through TV or radio. Include the interviewee's name, the title of the show, the broadcasting company, the city where you heard the interview, and the date. For example:
Bush, George W. Interview. Larry King Live. CNN, Atlanta. 17 January 2000.
Refer to Steps 1-2 in the MLA section above.
Include only an in-text citation, not a reference on your works cited page. The APA formatting guide focuses on providing the reader with the necessary tools to access the same information you used. Since other people reading your paper will not be able to re-create your personal interview, it is not a relevant piece of information for your works cited page.
If you have already introduced your interviewee by name in the same sentence, you need only include the words "personal communication" and the date in parentheses. For example:
(personal communication, October 3, 2008)
If you have not introduced the person by name, use this format:
(J. Smith, personal communication, October 3, 2008).
The APA Publication Manual does not provide guidelines for citing a published interview. However, noodletools.com suggests doing it this way:
Bush, G. W. (2001, September 13). [interview with Larry King, host of the Larry King Live Show]. Bush responds to terrorist attacks.