Just another conversation April 14, 2008

Can anyone classify themselves as a journalist?

A recent assignment lead me to some investigative work. We had to put our ‘journalistic hats’ on and as result, experience the world of journalism first hand. One of the main criteria points was to thrust myself into two interviews to find some underlying information about a local issue. To be honest my little local town, had nothing but sports club politics and school events that to me was nothing of the hard-hitting news work I was aiming to achieve.

Interviewing people in relation to these issues, seemed pointless. I conducted a telephone interview, wanting the telephone to mask my identity. I could not come to terms in calling myself a journalist and relaxing into a smooth conversation.

Further discussion with fellow students concluded that our nerves took the better of us and that we were no Oprah Winfrey. It was hard to seep the information we needed and the feeling of being immature students overtook our professionalism. A passage in ‘Interviewing’ by Chris Frost in Reporting for journalists stated:

‘A good interviewer is some one whom people trust and whom they fee comfortable talking to. Everyone likes a good listener. Small encouragements of ‘How exciting’, ‘Did it really?’, “Now, I’ve never heard of that happening before’, variety can persuade the interviewee of how interested you are. Our conversational gambits need to prove that we are listening to what they are saying interests us. ‘

This taught me that, interviewing doesn’t have to be of a professional caliber. We need to project ourselves as a trust worthy person, a person people want to chat to. As i took on this approach, the interview was nothing but another conversation.