Interviewing tips from Dan Gillmor.


Dan, if you get the opportunity to interview somebody, how many questions do you prepare to ask, and how do you prepare for the interview?

Interviewing - Dan Gillmor - original source - http://bayosphere.com/node/866#comment-7165

There is no single way to prepare for and conduct an interview. There are all kinds of techniques. (See this list of articles on interviewing at the excellent Journalism.org site for lots of ideas.)

Here are some tips based on my own experiences.

First: Prepare for your interview. Keep in mind that the people we are interviewing don't have unlimited time. If you have not done some basic homework, you will be wasting their time, and they won't appreciate it. Good reporters learn quickly that there are no stupid questions -- except the ones we could easily have answered with a bit of prior research. Start with Google and other search engines. You may be surprised how much you can learn about people (sometimes a scary amount). If you have time, the public library is a great place to visit, too, because libraries have subscriptions to commercial databases, such as collections of articles from publications that are not free on the Web. If the interview is in connection with someone's business, check the company's website.

Second: Look around. You can learn a lot about someone based on the surroundings, especially if you're in a home or office. For example, a wall covered with photos of your interview subject shaking hands with prominent people tells you something about his or her ego. A neat or messy desk may tell you something, too. If you can get permission, take a photo of the person in that context. Sometimes I like to take a short video clip of the surroundings. Today's digital cameras can shoot excellent-quality videos. Take advantage of that capability. A photo or video serves several purposes. You don't have to spend time writing down details of what you're seeing (except ones that you won't be able to distinguish from the digital images), so you can focus on the person.

Third: Don't go in with an attitude. Most interviews are not the kind of confrontations that we've come to associate with journalism due to the ambush-camera techniques of some TV broadcasts. The vast, vast majority are all about something simple: You want to learn more about a subject or person, or both, and the person you're interviewing wants to help. Also remember that the interview is about the other person, not you. He or she may ask you some polite questions, which you may of course answer, but try to get to the topic at hand sooner than later. An hour goes by fast in a good interview.

Fourth: Listen to the answers. This may sound obvious, but some interviews are a disjoined bunch of questions that leave obvious follow-up points hanging in the air. Sometimes it's better to toss out a question you've planned to ask in order to delve more deeply into some angle. I've gone into some interviews with a single question, listened hard to the answer and asked nothing but follow-up questions afterward. To do an interview this way, you need to be well-prepared, of course, but it can lead you down some fascinating paths if the person is interesting enough.

Fifth: A person who's accustomed to being interviewed will often frustrate you with canned replies, what are sometimes called "talking points." You'll ask Question A and get the answer to an entirely different question. Politely pursue the original subject question. One way I do this is to say, "I'm sorry, I guess my question wasn't very clear. Let me try again." And I ask it again, perhaps in a different way. I'd rather get a direct non-answer, such as "I'd rather not talk about that," than an indirect one.

Finally: I like to ask two questions at the end of the formal interview: "Who else should I speak to about this topic?" and "What have I not asked you that I should have asked you?" The first question helps you find other people who may be helpful but who may not have been on your list. The second often, but not always, brings out a point or two that will improve the article.

Again, these are hardly the only ways to do interviews. And in many cases you don't need to do this much -- some interviews are a single question, not a long process.

Hope this is a helpful start, at any rate.



Email interviews - when is it ok to publish what you're sent?

Suppose you send an email to a public figure asking about event A. (You've never met this person, although you've corresponded by email with him previously; the email account you're now using identifies you as "[Name] from [Blog]". In this email exchange, it becomes abundantly clear that Event B occurred. B doesn't reflect well on him. When you post about B on your blog, and ask for any response, he replies saying it was his understanding that the email was private.

Ethically, Can you publish the exchange? Or are you limited to just publishing its take-home message (and likely facing subsequent denials that you interpreted it properly)? Or can you not publish any thing at all about it?

I'm not entirely clear on what you're asking. If the person knew you were asking about something for a publication (blog or mass media or anything else), then there's no issue. Moreover, public figures know that unless they say something is off the record, it's on the record. It's best to be clear. In general, if you intend to quote from an email exchange, say so before it starts.