Essay 1

Think back on the interviews that you’ve done for news stories (for publication or for a class). Describe two – one that went especially well and one that went particularly badly. What did you do that made the interview go well/badly? For the interview that did not go well, what should you have done differently? For the interview that went well, what did you do to make that happen? What do seasoned journalists have to say about the art of interviewing, and how much of that is applicable to the interviewing situations that you typically find yourself in?

Journalism is a creative job. Journalists usually stand in the frontier of our society. They serve as the recorder for the history, the eyewitness for the current development. From the moment you take this career, you life has been endowed with a special definition. The word “accountability” becomes more sensitive in your life. How can we use this career to benefit the whole society should be a permanent problem for every journalist to reckon.

During the past month, I interviewed various persons who worked in different areas in my reporting work. Some of the interviews were very successful, while some of them were not quite ideal. As we know, interview was an inseparable part in reporting work, especially for the video stories. For the repowers, this was the most important stage to show your professional skills. While for interviewees, they wanted to use this opportunity to show their charisma and got the acknowledgement from the public. Every video reporter should keep this notion in mind. Now, I will use several examples to summarize the key points I got from the interviewing scene.

One of the most successful stories we did was the reporting of the delegate of Press Department of Liao Ning province from China came to visit LA. Our director assigned us to do this story two days before the press conference, and time for us was relatively ample. What we did was striving best to find the background information about this activity. From websites, newspapers, we even contacted the organizer for this conference to get the first hand materials. From all the materials we gathered we knew there was a long-time cooperation history for LA and Liao Ning province in different areas. Both cities designated officers to visit each other annually. The purpose for this visiting was inaugurating for the Broadcast and Television week of Liao Ning Province in LA. Based on the information we gathered before the press conference, the interviewing work got much easier for us to do. After the press conference, we got the opportunity to interview the vice minister of Press Department of Liao Ning Province. He answered all our questions, in terms of the history of cooperation between LA and Liao Ning, their current and future endeavor to promote the cultural communication between the two cities. All the answers were quite concise and pertinent.

“Like a good boy scout, a journalist should prepare for an interview. On a basic level, this includes researching the interviewee and seeing what has been written about him or her already.” Wrought by Dana Liebelson (a journalist from International Center for Journalists. ) in “5 interview tips every journalist needs”.

Suppose we did not do the preparing work before the reporting. Problems might get much terrible for us. We might lost several journalistic details from the interview of the vice minister, like there would be another delegate from Liao Ning province visit LA in October. All in all, our preparing work laid a strong foundation for the success of this story. “To be prepared, the promise for a successful story reporting,” was the biggest point I got from this work.

The other story I wanted to mention was not an ideal one. It was story about the opening ceremony for Aims Academy, which provided after school programs for student in different ages. Even though we gathered enough information about this school, but the interviewing work still same a little bit tough for us. The interviewee was the education supervisor. From the beginning, she told us she felt nervous when stood in front of the camera. During the interviewing process, the words she said were very obsessing, what she emphasized was just focused on how well their school was. She repeated one sentence for several times. Sometimes the words she said were intermittently, like “ uh….uh.” Eventually we recited very little of her words as our interviewing work. Fortunately, we had another officers’ interview which could be used. On the way back, I reckoned on why we failed to do that interview. There was one word appeared in my brain: affinity. Suppose if I was a female reporter, then the situation might get much better. Since affinity was always the advantages for females. Female reporter usually did well on release the nervous ambience in the event scene. As a reporter, no matter male or female you were, you must learn to be patient, and learn how to relax your interviewee during the interview process.

Sarah Stuteville, a reporter who writes for The Common Language Project once wrought “sometimes interviewees are frustrating not because they’re trying to bust your chops but just don’t understand what you want from them.” After read that, I realized that why we did not get what we want was because the interviewee did not know what we really wanted. I reviewed the questions we asked, the first one was: “Can you tell us your feeling about the activity today.” Feeling, actually was too general, for seasoned journalists, you needed to learn to guide your interviewee by asking concrete questions. If I asked: Can you tell us a little bit about the classes opened in your school? Then the situation may get much better. The intermittent word “ uh….uh..” might disappear in our interview. Since in such area, the education supervisor was an “expert”.

Interview was an art which needed all journalists used their own experiences to grip the essence of it. Dana liebelson, a journalist works for International Center for Journalist figured out five basic tips for interview: Be prepared, Embrace the digital age, Play by the e-mail interviews, Don’t give up when the going gets tough, Review timely.

Sarah Stutevill who writes for The Common Language Project points out 13 Simple Journalist Techniques For Effective Interviews: #1 – Find a good location. #2 – Prepare Your Goals Ahead. #3 – Write down your questions. #4 – Work on your flow. #5 – Think about the medium. #6 – Bring a buddy. #7 – Avoid Obsessing. #8 – Be a little annoying. #9 – Be a little sneaky. #10 – Empower them. #11 – Work them up. #12 – Endure awkward silences. #13 – Ask for what you need.

Actually, it was just one month since my work started. I also knew my understanding about the interview arts was relatively superficial. I will use my experience to develop a more deep understanding about those principles and apply them into practice in the future.