listen carefully, they might interrupt the answer before it is complete, which sometimes makes editing sound bytes difficult. When you realize you might have missed something, apologize and ask the interviewee to repeat the answer.
Phone interviews should only be used when it is impossible to interview the individual in person. It sounds unprofessional to conduct an interview on the phone with the mayor or someone else in your city or town when you could hop in a car and go to the person’s office. Phone interviews are most effective when used to reach newsmakers in another part of the country or overseas.
Such interviews demonstrate to the audience that the station is making a special effort to cover the news.
AN INTERvIEW CHECKLIsT
Finally, while there are literally bookshelves filled with suggestions about how to conduct interviews, Susan Morris of the University of Pittsburgh boils them down to these suggestions—think of them as a quick reminder of how an interview should be handled.
■ Develop a technique of asking short questions that get right to the point.
■ Phrase the questions without apologies and in a matter-of-fact manner.
Avoid beginning a question with “I hate to ask you this, but.…”
■ Pause between questions even when dealing with less volatile subjects.
You are likely to get more thoughtful answers.
■ If a person is hedging, take time to explain what the information is being used for. Explain that you do not have an editorial position.
FIGURE 10.7 Investigative reporters and editors can find a great resource at www.
ire.org, a site where journalists can share story ideas, techniques, and sources.
summARy
To conduct a good interview, you must prepare for it. Do some research to find out as much as you can about the person you will be interviewing.
Decide on the kind of information you want and choose your questions accordingly.
Remember to listen carefully during an interview. Make sure your questions are answered to your satisfaction. If they aren’t, say so, and follow up on your questions. Don’t be used. Try to maintain control of the interview. If you permit it, the interviewee will often take over. Keep to your objectives; don’t let the head go off on tangents.
Finally, interviews are not necessarily a reliable source of accurate information because those being interviewed want to be perceived in the best light. Do not hesitate to ask to double-check facts or ask a tough question. After all, that’s the heart of what reporters do.
Test your Knowledge
1. Why must radio and TV reporters be more selective than their newspaper colleagues in choosing questions to ask in their interviews?
2. How should you prepare for an interview before you leave the station? Give some examples.
3. It’s always a good idea to prepare a list of questions for an interview, but there also are dangers. Explain.
4. How should you phrase questions to make sure you get complete answers?
5. What kind of trouble can reporters fall into if they do not listen intently to the person they’re interviewing?
6. Discuss the pros and cons of warming up the person you’re interviewing.
7. Discuss tough and surprise questions.
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of off-the-record comments?
ExERCIsEs
1. Interview a faculty member in a department other than your own. Before doing so, find out as much as you can about the individual and turn in those notes, along with a story based on your interview.
2. Conduct a man-on-the-street interview with a dozen students on campus. Edit the sound bytes together as they would appear on-air.
3. Interview someone in the community who is in the news. Produce a wraparound report or package.
CHAPTER 11
Covering Planned Events
CoNTENTs
Introduction ...177 Press
Conferences ....178 Covering the Press
Conference ...179 Interviewing Around the Press
Conference ...180 Finding
Workable
Video ...181 Meetings ...181 Political
Campaigns ...185 Grand
Openings ...188
KEy WoRds
Cold Open Feature Event Grand Opening
INTRoduCTIoN
There are literally thousands of corporations, politicians, special-interest groups, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and other individuals and groups looking for exposure on network and local newscasts. Assignment desks are inundated with news releases and telephone calls from public- relations firms and publicists working for these various groups. And, of course, most of these organizations have Web pages on the Internet where newsrooms can reach them and vice versa.
Every one of these publicists tries to persuade the assignment staff that there is something special or important about the product, company, issue, or indi- vidual they represent. The assignment desk rejects most of these news releases and telephone calls for a variety of reasons—usually because they are too commercial or have little or no news value or because there just is not enough airtime available to go around. However, some of these releases and telephone calls alert the assignment staff to events that are important and warrant coverage.
Gathering a crowd of journalists with tape recorders and cameras in one room is a triumph for anyone working in public relations. The number of journalists who attend such news conferences depends on what is being “sold.” Make no mistake about it, that is what we are talking about—“selling.”
The coverage of planned events can bring out the best among competing news crews. It is common for news teams to loan batteries or share electrical cords
with one another. Because covering a planned event can occupy a news crew 177 Meeting
Objectivity Political Campaign
Press Conference Subjectivity
© 2010 Elsevier, Inc.
for several hours, it is acceptable for news crews to share footage. After all, the footage recorded will look similar no matter who shoots it, plus no station will scoop the story from the others. In cases like these, camaraderie among the news stations is to be admired.
This chapter discusses these events and describes why some of the events are newsworthy whereas others are not. City council meetings, which are planned events, may be tedious, yet have nuggets of information for the audience.
However, a showy press conference may have more visual impact but not the newsworthiness of the council meeting. Learning to gauge why to cover these stories and how to cover them well are key elements of this chapter.