How-To

While working through my month-long internship at the Kingston Whig-Standard, I learned a lot of important lessons about working in the journalism industry. One of the things I was most surprised by was the amount of time I spent on the phone. Unless you are hired to report for a weekly publication in a small town, it’s almost impossible to cover all of your assignments in person — particularly at a daily newspaper. As such, it’s important for every novice reporter to become accustomed to interviewing sources over the phone.

Here are some tips for improving your phone interview technique.

• Use a tape recorder. For any journalist, an accurate, word-for-word record of an interview is invaluable. It allows you to review what was said quickly and easily while ensuring the accuracy of your quotes. Saving the taped conversations also provides an effective way of defending oneself should a source decide to dispute your article.

  It should be noted, however, the legality of recording phone conversations can vary greatly from area to area. Some provinces allow for one-party consent, while others require permission from both parties. When in doubt, inform the interviewee of your intent to record the conversation and allow them the opportunity to refuse. Legal or not, you are obligated to uphold journalistic integrity. Deceiving your sources about the way in which you conduct phone interviews serves only to foster mistrust in yourself and the journalism community.

• Take detailed notes. While a tape recorder can be an excellent tool, it shouldn’t be used as a crutch. Handwritten notes provide an extra layer of accuracy and make it much easier to keep yourself organized. When conducting phone interviews, record things like the contact’s name, the time you called, the reason for doing so, and any notes you may wish to leave for yourself. If you’re the type to hand-write your interview questions beforehand, keep these notes in the same notepad.

  Like anything else, be sure to keep these notepads once you’ve finished with them. You never know when you’ll need the information again.

• Leave strong messages. When your only point of contact with someone is over the phone, messages count. If you call a source and get the answering machine, leave a brief, clear, professional message. You should include your name, why you are calling, the subject of your story, what their connection to the story is, and your contact information. Learn to speak quickly, but clearly.
• Be persistent. Trying to contact someone over the phone has many advantages. It’s quick, relatively easy, and it increases the number of sources available to you on a given subject. However, it also makes it much easier for you to be ignored.

  If you are the type of person who becomes nervous at the thought of calling someone more than once a day, now is the time to get over it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since journalism school, it’s that the most successful journalists are usually the most persistent ones. If someone doesn’t call you back, call their office again. If you can’t get them at their office, try their cell. If someone gives you their home number, try to get in touch with them there as well. Don’t harass them, but don’t be afraid to use the information you have either.

• Watch your tone. As much as you may hate to do it, develop a polite phone voice. Many phone sources are people you will never meet in person, and they will judge you based on how you conduct yourself verbally. Speak in complete sentences and don’t mumble. “Umm” and “Uhh” are out.
• Be brief. If you think it’s hard to hold someone’s attention in person, try getting them to stay on the phone for long periods of time. Have your questions ready before you call, get your answers, and wrap up. Ask your most important questions first, in case something cuts the interview short.
• When in doubt, repeat. You may not get a second chance to interview a source, so you need to make every chance count. If you don’t understand something that’s been said, make sure you ask about it. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of feeling like a journalist must know everything under the sun. Don’t let yourself do that. If you knew everything, your job would be obsolete.

With some practice and determination, and keeping things like tone of voice in mind, any reporter can become a skilled phone interviewer. Like photography, being able to communicate effectively over the phone improves a reporter’s skill set and allows them to more easily adapt to any situation.

If there is one important lesson I learned in journalism school, it’s to never confuse a writer with a journalist. While a writer may be able to pen page after page of flowing prose, a journalist is a different kettle of fish altogether. At any time, a well-trained journalist can be called to write well on a tight deadline, lay out a page, shoot photographs, or edit the work of others. In short, a journalist must master a much larger skill set than most writers.

While most large papers employ reporters and photographers separately, many smaller publications require a reporter to shoot their own photos while in the field. Many young reporters, inexperienced with photography, find it difficult to balance their reporting style with their newfound photographic duties. The addition of a camera can make the reporter feel intrusive and awkward when dealing with the public and interviewees. However, with time and practice, a reporter can effectively shoot and report simultaneously.

Here are some tips for improving your technique.

• Know your equipment. Before you even walk out the door make sure you know, at minimum, the basic functions of your camera. Read the manual if you have to. You should be able to turn it on and off, shoot photos, and review them without flinching. When a great photo presents itself, the last thing you need is to be fumbling around with an unfamiliar camera.
• Talk through the camera. To put your subject at ease, keep talking to them when the camera is up to your face. By doing so, you minimize the impact of losing eye contact and face-to-face interaction. A calm tone of voice and encouraging words will help your subject relax, and a more relaxed subject almost always results in a better shot.
• Don’t be timid. Being saddled with a camera can make many journalists feel intrusive. Don’t let it. In my experience many people, despite their initial reaction, like having their picture taken, given the right situation. Remember, you have been sent out to do a job, don’t allow your personal anxieties to get in the way of that. If you are friendly, courteous, and aware of your surroundings, most situations will present little difficulty.
• Plan ahead. Think about the event and your story. Who are your main subjects? What shots do you absolutely need to get? What shots would you like to get, but are optional? What will you need to bring with you to accomplish those goals? Answering those questions, if possible, can save you a lot of time and aggravation.
• Be prepared. Keep the camera around your neck and the lens cap off. If you are using an external flash, make sure it’s on and set properly. Keep an extra memory card in your pocket, if you need one. Extra batteries are a good idea too. Think like a Boy Scout and make sure you go into the event ready for anything.

For many young journalists and students, finding a full-time industry job can often prove difficult. By mastering “secondary” skills like photography, a journalist improves their skill-set and makes themselves infinitely more marketable to potential employers. By adopting an attitude of continuous learning, it becomes easy to ensure you are never replaceable.

Looking back on my time as a journalist thus far, there is one moment which stands out as the most frightening. I was covering the Royal Military College’s 2006 convocation ceremony and had gotten word that defence minister, Gordon O’Connor, would be in attendance. In recent weeks, O’Connor had become a virtual recluse, shying away from any sort of interaction with the media. The mounting death toll in Afghanistan was once again coming into the news and O’Connor, battered with media inquiries, was riding out the storm.

Now, however, O’Connor couldn’t avoid the spotlight any further. Word had recently reached Canada that we had lost Nichola Goddard, Canada’s first female combat casualty. In the middle of the ceremony, the college’s public relations officer casually informed us O’Connor had reluctantly agreed to set up a scrum for the members of the media present.

As a young and inexperienced journalist, this was a scary prospect. A scrum requires you to know what you want to ask ahead of time, ask your questions quickly, and jockey for time with other members of the media. I had never been in such a high-pressure situation before, but I survived. I managed to ride on the coattails of a local CBC reporter, as well as one of the photographers from the Whig, both of whom had much more experience than I. It may not have gone all that well, but it was an incredibly useful learning experience and it’s something I’ll never forget.

How can you avoid suffering a similar fate? Read on.

• If possible, be prepared. If you know the event you are covering usually plays host to a scrum or two afterward, go in there prepared. Chances are, you’ll have a pretty good idea of who will be stopping to speak with reporters and who won’t. Prepare some questions ahead of time and modify as necessary throughout the event.
• Don’t panic! Go over your notes and get things organized in your head. You are taking notes, right? If not, start now. If you have time, write out all of your questions and thoughts, using a new page for each new interviewee or subject. When in doubt, discuss your problems with your editor. Chances are he’s been through many a scrum and can offer you a number of ideas you (and I) never even considered.
• Think like a ninja. Remember, there are going to be a lot of other reporters jockeying to interview the same person. When you get an opportunity to ask a question, take it quickly. If you don’t, you might not get another chance. Don’t let the other members of the media intimidate you. You have just as much of a right to be there as they do.
• Don’t be afraid to get physical. I’m certainly not advocating violence in any form, but the simple fact of the matter is that scrums, by their very definition, require a little bit of pushing and shoving. Professional reporters have learned this lesson the hard way and don’t mind pushing a green or student reporter around. Don’t let them do it. That said…
• Be considerate. If there’s a camera in your way, don’t just shove on the arm connected to it. If someone’s microphone is in your way, don’t just slap it away. I’ve seen this happen in a number of scrums and, despite my earlier tip, it is generally frowned upon. Equipment can cost thousands of dollars and you really don’t want to be the recipient of a bill for someone’s smashed camera or tape recorder. You may be fighting for a sound bite right now, but remember these people are your colleagues and, in the future, potential employers or co-workers. It pays to be as respectful as possible. Even if someone wrongs you, be gracious. The kindness will impress those around you and give you a positive reputation.

A scrum can be a heated, confusing situation for any reporter, let alone a novice. Keep your head on straight, take good notes, stay on the top of the situation, and you’ll do fine.

While working through my internship at the Kingston Whig-Standard, one of the most frustrating assignments I was given was to complete a “streeter”. For those who don’t know, a streeter consists of formulating a single question, usually related to current events, which is then posed to a number of random strangers (hence the ’street’ part). The idea is to gather opinions from a cross-section of genders, age groups, races, and social situations. The results are then published, usually with accompanying photographs.

For a journalist, this is pure grunt work. However, in many ways, it puts all of your skills to test at once. And hey, that can’t be a bad thing, right?

• Bring back more than you need. If your editor tells you to go out and interview 10 people for the streeter, make sure you come back with 15. There will almost always be a problem with one (or more) of your interviews or photographs and you don’t want to be forced to go running out into the street to try and find another person to bother. Give your editor more than what he wants and you’ll ensure your success while saving yourself some time and trouble.
• Interview many different types of people. Unless your town is completely homogeneous, you should be striving to present as accurate a picture of your community as you can. This means making a concerted effort to interview people with as many different nationalities, genders, ages, and social situations as you can. Interviewing the guy in the business suit is all well and good, but see what the homeless guy on the corner has to say too. You may just be surprised at what you can learn.
• Stay consistent. Figure out what question you want to ask and stick with it. If you vary from interview to interview, your results will be confusing for the reader and you will hurt the entire goal of doing a streeter. Only one question will be published, anyway. Write the question down, exactly as you’d like to word it, and read it back to every single person.
• Make sure you collect any necessary information. At the Whig, I was asked to find out each person’s name , age, employment status, and what street they lived on. Your publication may require other details, but you need to make sure you get them. In my experience if you are missing any of the required items, the interview cannot be used.
• Wear comfortable shoes. You are going to be doing plenty of walking around. If you’ve made a habit of wearing dress shoes in the newsroom, make sure you change into something more comfortable while out on a streeter. I made the mistake of wearing dress shoes once. Never again.
• Keep a positive attitude. A streeter, by its very definition, involves getting out into the community and dealing with the general public. By staying happy and cheerful, you make yourself more approachable and easier to talk to. Reporters can be very intimidating for many people, particularly young people and women. By presenting a positive demeanor, you stand a better chance of getting good results.

A streeter is usually one of the few times a publication will ask a reporter to take their own photographs. It just doesn’t make sense for the paper to send two people out for such a simple assignment. Many reporters who don’t handle cameras on a regular basis, can find this awkward and intrusive. Here are some tips to hopefully make the process go a little more smoothly.

• Let them know ahead of time. Make sure you inform the interviewee that you will be requiring a photograph for the story. Often times, you’ll get all the way through the interview, only to have the subject refuse to be photographed. Of course, this leaves you back at square one.
• Keep talking. When the time comes, keep talking with the person while you set up the picture. This can often help put people at ease and makes the camera feel a little less intrusive. Most people don’t mind having their picture taken if you offer them some positive words of encouragement.
• Frame the shot correctly. Most streeter photos are head shots — spanning from just below the shoulders, to a little bit above the person’s head. Make sure you frame each shot in this manner, otherwise the photo department may not be able to use them.
• Shoot more than one photo. Grab a couple shots of each person, just in case. Going back to the newsroom, only to find none of your photos are suitable for print, is an experience I would wish upon only my greatest enemies.

The most important thing to remember is to relax. The best part of being a journalist is having the opportunity to get out there, meet new people, and have new and exciting experiences. What better way than through a streeter?