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Interviewing Skills

Page history last edited by Carol Hemmerly 15 years, 1 month ago

A note from a former journalist and current journalism adviser:

 

The biggest thing misunderstood about reporting is that it is NOT a matter of asking a list of prepared questions and frantically trying to write down the answers.  Great interviewing is a CONVERSATION between the reporter and the source and when the source gives a reply that reply is the catalyst for the next question. 

 

I've been reporting for 50 years and have seen so much bad reporting (I'm not one for tape recording interviews either; it totally changes the nature of the interchange and the source's openness--it also tempts the reporter to use the tape recorder to simply record answers and the questions begin to deteriorate). 

 

Once I was with a bunch of people interviewing Barbra Streisand--they kept addressing her as "Miss Streisand" and asking questions such as "When did you know you wanted to be a singer?" 

 

Aaaargggggh.  Finally, I said, "Barbra, where in God's name is the French album?" 

 

"You know about the French album?" she said. 

 

“Yes, dollink,” I replied, "I'm a fan." 

 

I pretty much had the floor the rest of the time PLUS she had Goddard Lieberson, the head of Columbia Records at the time, send me a copy of the French songs which had already been released in France. 

 

Interviewing the daughter of the president of Israel at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, brought into her suite by a body guard, I said, “Where's the bed?”  I had never seen a hotel suite before! 

 

That changed her whole attitude (she clearly was in no mood for an interview, had had enough of spoiled Americans and was tiny and tough and ready to go to war). We ended up having breakfast together with the body guard and boy did she unload on me. 

 

Great story, and she was fascinating.

 

I have long stories about interviewing Betty Friedan without having read "The Feminine Mystique" because it was sold out in all the bookstores in town, and being backstage with many famous people and I never once asked a nice, neat question and wrote down a nice, neat answer.  IT AIN'T JOURNALISM!  If you can teach that, you're doing well by your students. 

 

It works just as well with superintendents, principals and the PTA president.  As for note taking, you put down key words while maintaining eye contact, you double-check everything and clarify quotes as the second part of the interview, you arrange to be able to call back and check everything again, and you always write the story, no matter how tired you are, before you go to sleep.  That takes it from short term memory to long term memory. 

 

TEENAGERS CAN DO THIS AS WELL AS PROFESSIONAL ADULT JOURNALISTS!  I can spot a newspaper or yearbook with REAL interviewing, as compared to civic exercises, a mile away.  It makes all the difference in the world.

 

 

—Wayne Brasle, University High Journalism Teacher/Adviser

 

 

Comments (1)

Carol Hemmerly said

at 11:54 am on Sep 23, 2009

Add a comment below regarding how Brasle's views on interviewing go along with, further, or perhaps negate the interviewing skills emphasized on the newsu.org website on interviewing or from The Rules of Interviewing Notes provided in class.

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