Interviews for the Messenger are mostly about human interest, that means we are interested in the individual’s story, because they are doing something interesting or just because they live locally. Interviews like this are positive and are only printed if the interviewee is happy with what we have written.
Occasionally interviews will be about a news story, in which case we will be looking to get information and interesting quotes. Some of the questions may be challenging, but even in this case we will check what we have written back with the interviewee.
Before the interview
Chat with your interviewee briefly about the subjects you want to cover, this might help you prepare questions. It also means the interviewee won’t be too surprised by your questions.
Arrange a time and place for the interview
Let someone know where you’re going, and let someone in the Messenger office know as well.
Preparing Questions
Research might be useful, if the topic of the interview is specialised, or you need to get particular information for a news story. Research can help you think of the most interesting questions.
Prepared questions are very useful, but you don’t need to stick to them rigidly – its good to let the conversation flow and this will help the interviewee to relax as well. Check through your planned questions from time to time to make sure you are not missing any important information.
Try to avoid asking too many “closed questions”, which are phrased in a way that means the person answering can only give a one-word answer (often just “yes” or "no"). Examples would be:
"Do you like working at the nursery?"
"Are you happy with the outcome of your campaign?"
Closed questions are not very good at getting people talking, although they can be useful for checking details or getting simple facts. Try also to avoid phrasing questions in a way that suggest the answer you want to hear, for example:
"Did you feel terrible about it?"
In most cases questions need to be open ended ("open questions"). They allow the person answering to reply at length, making them good to use in interviews. Examples are:
"What's it like to work at the nursery?"
"How do you feel about the outcome of the campaign?"
The actual questions you ask will depend on the story you want to write about – if you want to know about the activities they are doing now, what their childhood was like isn’t all that useful – background detail, is interesting but can be brief. If you’re getting someone’s life story, their childhood will be important.
Remember the basics:
Who are they – this could include name (check the spelling), age, what area they live (eg Carwood), what their job title is or what they do for a living, do they have family/ children.
What – the details of their activities, or what happened
Where – where are the events or activities you’re talking about taking place
When – this could be times and dates, or the year if you are talking about the past
Why – why are they involved in the activity, what made them get started.
How – in some cases how something will be done is important.
What’s next – do they have plans for the future
During the interview
Try to make eye contact – this can be difficult if you’re making notes, but it lets the interviewee know you’re listening and helps them talk.
Don’t be afraid to ask – questions may come to mind while they are speaking or they may say something you don’t understand. But be careful not to interrupt.
Remember the interview is not about you – be careful not to start talking about your own opinion or your own experiences too much, although it can be useful to use these to encourage people to talk.
Direct quotes are important – try to write down some of what is said the way the interviewee says it. Not all the interview needs to be like this, but several key quotes will help bring across the personality of the interviewee.
Writing up the story
When you’re writing the story the main thing is to remember the focus of your story and don’t stray too far. But you don’t need to stick to a formula, different styles are interesting for the reader. Here are a few tips and ideas
Tell the reader what it’s about – this can be done in the first sentence (when the story is about news), or be revealed later, but always near the beginning.
Set the scene – you can tell the reader where you were when you met the interviewee, about the atmosphere, or about what the interviewee looks like, or how they came across.
Include direct quotes – Let the interviewee speak for themselves, it makes the story more credible. Quotes can reveal information and move the story along as well as give you an insight into the personality.
Conclusion – what’s going to happen next, how to get involved, or someone to contact for more information.
Here are some ideas for different ways you might want to write up your interview:
1. Include the questions you asked
You might want to write up the interview to include the questions that you aksed and the person’s answers. This style is particularly good if the interview was with a public figure and you think it would be interesting for the reader to know what was asked. Here is an example:
New Inspector for Burngreave
Story: Seraphin Nyirenda
We invited Inspector Adrian McWalter to our office to talk about his new role managing the Burngreave, Shiregreen and Firth Park Safe Neighbourhood Area for South Yorkshire Police. Adrian has been a police officer for 23 years and an Inspector for the last three. He has a background in policing gun crime and has come to his new job with determination.
What’s it like policing in Burngreave?
Policing in Burngreave for me is obviously a challenge. I take personal pride in making Burngreave the best area in Sheffield. At the moment, Burngreave is in the best 6 areas for crime and antisocial behaviour, not the worst. I think this is something people overlook.
People in the area complain about the poor response from the police. How do you prioritise calls?
Incidents are graded: we have an immediate incident where somebody is at risk of injury or harm. The next incident is a priority incident. After that we’ve got a scheduled incident, which is where my team comes in, picking up anti-social behaviour, criminal damage or low level drug dealing. Etc….
2. Write an article about the person, with a few quotes from the interview
You could write up your article by using the information you gathered in the interview to write about the person. To make it interesting for the reader, you could put in some quotes directly from the interview. Here is an example:
Graduations – Suria Saleh
Story:Amal Ahmed and Anab Ali
Suria Saleh enrolled at Sheffield Hallam University in September 2006 to do a PGCE/CertEd, and graduated last year ready to continue her role as a teacher at the Yemeni Community Association. Suria came from Yemen in 1991 and attended Earl Marshall School. She came to this country with her Mum and her five brothers.
“My father came to Sheffield in the 1960s and he worked in a steel factory. My father used to visit us in Yemen every two years but in the 1980s the policy changed and my father decided to bring us to the UK. There were barriers for me, like culture, language and the climate, but now England is my second home.”
In 1995 she finished school and went to the college for one year to do health and social care, but she didn’t finish the course…. etc
3. Only include what the person said
An alternative is to write a short intoduction about the interviewee, then simply write out a transcript of what the person said, so that the reader gets the story in the person’s own words. (If you ended up asking questions in a funny order, it’s ok to rearrange it when you write it up, so that your article makes sense, or to get rid of words like ‘um’ etc).
You don’t show the questions you asked or write about the person from your own point of view. The person’s responses then ‘speak for themselves’. This style is good if you want the interviewee’s personality to come through.
Here is an example:
A Good Life!
Story: Jenson Grant
Collis Icylyn Beckford is a sprightly 73 year old mother of six from Burngreave. Destinations Arts managed to catch up with her and recorded her life story as part of our Oral History and Arts Project, Digital Journeys. These are extracts from Collis's rich and fascinating life!
I was born in Trelawney, Jamaica on 19th June 1933. I'm one of 13 children that are ten girls and three boys. We all lived on a farm and my parents had acres of coffee plants, fruit, vegetables and banana trees. We had fresh food and never needed to go to the markets. Etc…..
When I moved to England, I didn't have much problems with fitting in because I applied for a job in the hospital that my sister was working in. One month after I came I got a job as a psychiatric nurse at Middlewood Hospital. I came to Sheffield on the 22nd October 1960 and got a job on the 23rd of November!
Personal safety
Interviewing for the Messenger is not a risky business, but here are a few common-sense things you still need to think about:
Always let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back
Let the Messenger office know when and where the interview will be.
Try to meet interviewees in public places if possible.
If you have any concerns interviewing in someone’s home or in private ask if someone can go with you.
If you feel uncomfortable for any reason, make your excuses and leave. You can always rearrange the interview at a later date.
Always show your Messenger identity badge.