Episode 3: Interviewing

[Intro music]

Hello and welcome back to News Decoder’s Guide to Audio Storytelling. I’m your host, Cathal O’Luanaigh and in this episode we look at the art of interview, how to find the people you want to interview and the types of things that you’ll want to be asking them.

So let’s get into it.

You may have gathered from the first two episodes that you don’t really have a story without people and if you want to tell a story, you’re going to have to speak to people.

That’s all well and good, but you don’t just want to speak to them about life, love and everything in between. You’re trying to get them to tell you a story, to come out with relevant quotes and to speak about issues that might be complex, emotionally draining or difficult — perhaps issues that might put them in danger or things that could be embarrassing to them or the companies that they represent.

So, how do you get people to open up? And how do you get them to add to the story that you’re telling?

Again, let’s go back to basics.

Before you can run an interview, you need someone you can interview and that’s generally where the first question is:

Who do I interview and how do I find them?

Well, it’s simple. Think about your story. Who is important in that story or what voices should be present?

In a story about truck drivers, it’s important to speak to a truck driver. Does that mean you need to stand outside service stations in the country that you want to interview them? Well, maybe. But if you don’t have the time or resources for that, start by searching for big trucking companies, send them an email, phone them and speak to them.

Put out a message on social media, on relevant groups and forums or speak to friends and text them. At this stage, you need to reach out to people. You can reach out to as many people as you like and get the word out, or you may want to pinpoint an expert. Generally, most towns and cities have a university with experts in their subject areas. These can be great places to start.

When you reach out to people, introduce yourself. Tell them who you are, who you work for and why you’d like to speak to them. Tell them how long you’d like to speak to them for. People lead very busy lives and are more likely to accept if you give them a short window. Even if they’re not really that busy, they might think they are, so fitting in a fifteen-twenty minute chat is easier than asking for days of their time.

Be open and honest from the outset. That’s extremely important in building transparency and trust – crucial elements in reporting and in building relationships. Another reason for introducing yourself is to show the person you’re speaking to that you are serious about your reporting and would like to add their voice, the voice of an expert, to the conversation.

You tell the story, but they hold a lot of the information, facts and details.

Be prepared for people to not reply, to ghost you, to miss meetings or to need to reschedule. One of the most difficult and often time consuming parts of reporting is securing and arranging interviews. But persevere. Interviews are essential to good stories and great interviews could elevate your stories to the next level.

So you’ve secured an interview with an expert, now what?

Do your research. Look into what the person you’re speaking to does: Where are they from? What context do they work in? What have they written? What areas are they active in?

This background research ensures that you’ll be prepared, shows your interviewee that you’re interested in them and might lead you to asking more interesting questions.

For the interview itself, ask open ended questions. You can’t really quote a ‘yes/no’ answer, so structure your questions so that you get the interviewee to produce longer answers. Rather than asking ‘Did things get better?’ you might ask ‘How did things improve?’

As you speak to your interviewee, make sure that you’re actively listening. In person or online, that means looking at them while they speak, reacting to what they say, using body language to react and asking follow-up questions. The more people feel like they’re speaking to a human who’s interested in what they have to say, the more they’ll speak.

While you’re speaking, you should be taking notes about details. What does the person look like, what are they wearing, what does the room or place you’re in look and sound like? Are there parts of the conversation in which the person’s demeanour changed? Notice these details and later, as you recount the story, bring them in and describe them to your audience.

Then, at the end of your interview, make sure you thank your interviewee. They’ve given their time and voice to your story.

Without them, you would not have a story. They may have spoken about issues that are difficult to speak about or made time for you at a difficult, stressful time. Thank them and let them know when you publish or release your story. They’ll be interested to see what you’ve produced.

So that wraps things up for this episode. In the next section, we look at podcasting and the main things you’ll want to think about if you’re going to record and edit a podcast.

[Outro music]

This podcast was hosted by me, Cathal O’Luanaigh, produced with News Decoder, and forms part of the WePod European Podcasting project — a collaborative, cross-border podcasting project funded by the European Commission’s Creative Europe Programme Fund.

Episode 3: Interviewing

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