This thesis examines the practice of interviewing, firstly in 'qualitative' sociological research, and secondly in various formats of contemporary British television. In both contexts, interviewing has been used to generate experiential accounts, not only for public scrutiny and analysis, but also to provide certain kinds of cultural fascination and pleasure. However, despite a substantial methodological literature, little critical attention has been given to the kinds of accounts formulated in interviews, and to the interview itself as a particular context for public speaking. This thesis contains an analysis of the forms of discourse produced when interviewees are invited to- 'speak from experience'; and it is argued that in the process of formulating their experiences specific identities, or forms of subjectivity, are constructed. Interviewing is a pervasive cultural practice, but it is also located in particular institutional contexts. Accordingly, interview discourse can be related. to successive realisations of the notion of a 'public sphere' for the publication and circulation of statements. The qualitative sociological interview begins to develop in mid-nineteenth century practices of social investigation; but it is suggested that these social criteria are displaced, and speaking from experience is transformed, in the mass mediated public sphere of the post-war period.