JMC 101: Interviewing Tips & Tricks
One of the most important things when being an aspiring journalist is learning how to conduct interviews. I know it might seem frustrating at first — going up to people, getting them to share their stories, dealing with equipment. But don’t worry. I’m here to give you some tips and tricks on how to overcome your fears of talking to strangers and tell you some mistakes me and my friends have made, so you don’t have to.
To start off, AUBG offers a variety of courses where you will need to conduct interviews — there you will explore the topic more broadly and expand your skills as you interact with people throughout the semester. However, you will also need to know a thing or two about interviewing outside of AUBG — when going to job interviews or merely doing your first journalistic work.
So what to do? For a lot of people the hardest part is going up to talk to people. Be it social anxiety, or lack of knowledge on how to approach strangers, it is frustrating. For one of my projects a friend and I had to go around Blagoevgrad and interview people. Her first words to me were “you do the talking!”. Since I am generally a talkative person, I did not find it hard to go up to strangers and ask to have their pictures taken. However, my friend found it hard to do the same. So my advice here is to take a deep breath and release all fears. I know, I know — social anxiety does not vanish *like that*. However, as a journalist, you have to get used to being pushed out of your comfort zone. Otherwise, you will find it hard to do your work.
Sometimes you have to force yourself to do it. Repeat to yourself that you are in control, nobody is going to harm you or laugh at you. You are merely doing your job. If it is going to help, put on some nice clothes, stick a pen behind your ear, grab a fancy notebook and in your head pretend you’re a New York Times journalist on the hunt for the greatest story. Sometimes you have to fake it ’til you make it.
Another good tip for being less scared when approaching people is to plan what you are going to say and be prepared for the interview. This includes doing initial research (stalking people on all kinds of social media, not staying in front of their window at night), preparing questions and having in mind how you are going to approach them. What me and my friend said to people was:
“Hello, we are students from the American University in Bulgaria and we are doing [include information about the specific project]. One of our tasks is to take a picture of you and to have a brief conversation about [specific topic of assignment]. We wish to also inform you that this information is going to be published [wherever it is going to be published] and without your consent we will not do anything with it.”
This brief paragraph can be rephrased and reshaped according to your needs, but will generally suit most of the projects you have to do. Telling people they have control over the information is going to make them more comfortable and willing to talk to you. Always be cheerful, welcoming and cooperative. Respect their wish to not be interviewed, but do not back down when they say no. Some people need to be told a bit more, to be talked into cooperating. Of course, do not be pushy and do not get irritated when they refuse to take part — always respect their wishes as subjects.
Okay, you have approached your subject, you have their consent, you have prepared the questions and it is time for the interview. What do you do now? As a student who is going to take their first interview, you do not really need much — a recorder of any kind (a Zoom if you’re feeling fancy, or just a phone will do the trick), your questions and oxygen. Breathe. It is not as scary as it appears. Once the recorder is on, you might get sweaty, forget everything you have in your head and start stuttering and worrying. Do not. It is going to be okay.
A problem I had at first was precisely that — I got so nervous that I just read all of my questions as if I was a robot and not a human being. The key to a good interview is conversing and being genuinely interested. What I found that helped me a lot was not having the questions written, but rather the topics of the conversation. That way I did not get too involved into the specific questions and I focused more on the person talking, rather than my notebook.
Of course, this is depending on the person — if you like more structure and feel like having the questions written out is better, do it; if you prefer to improvise, go ahead. Just know that by having the topics instead of the Qs you really have to listen and prepare follow-ups. Take notes and remember the key parts of the interview. It always helps to write down the highlights after you are done or to record yourself reflecting on the interview. Discuss with yourself what should be included or taken out when it is still fresh in your head.
Now that you have the recording, listen to it once again as you take notes of what is important. Focus on the angle of your interview — the way you want to present your story, what you emphasise on. After that start thinking about how you want to structure it — what to begin with, how to transition, how to end it (making a mind map is a game-changer). There are endless ways to go about this, but mostly it is up to how you feel is most logical and how you, as a reader, would want to read about it. Always think about the reader and what would make most sense to them and (i cannot emphasise this enough) always ask for feedback from your friends, your classmates, your professor. Help each other and be kind to each other, as you are all in this together.
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Teodora Zlateva is a student at the American University in Bulgaria. Her favorite part of interviewing is getting people to share their secrets.
