Story Behind the Story: The longest Q&A ever
A Q&A about a Q&A about cultural change
On Sept. 15, the OU Daily published a Q&A-style story written by Emma Keith, a sophomore news reporter, detailing an interview with George Henderson.
Henderson has been at the University of Oklahoma for almost half a century and is credited with creating the Human Relations department at the university. Keith spoke with Henderson about racial tensions and changes that he has witnessed during his time.
The full story ran just over 3,500 words in length, making it one of the longer features you’ll read in a while, let alone Q&A stories. At first, I was hesitant, but every single quote that was included in Keith’s final story was so heavy in substance that the arc of the conversation was never dull.
I sat down with Keith to ask how she arrived at the Daily, how she inherited the Henderson story and why a 3,500-word, Q&A-style story worked.
Q: So, how did you end up at the Daily?
A: “I came in as a journalism major last year and I’d never written for a paper before and I wanted to find out why I wanted to do this. So I thought, ‘it’d probably be good to get some experience.’
“So I applied last fall, started last spring, somehow stuck around through the spring into this semester and I just think it’s really great experience.”
Q: Is journalism something you want to do after school?
A: “Yeah.”
Q: Why is that?
A: “Um, I think that I didn’t really originally know this but, first of all, I love to write. That’s one of my biggest passions. And also I really love to tell stories, so being able to find stories behind events or ideas like that is really exciting.”
Q: So this was during the OU-Ohio State weekend when everyone was writing content that was themed after the game, did you pitch this idea to talk to Henderson or did Andrew (Clark) or Daisy (Creager) come to you and ask you to do this?
A: “So they actually gave us all our ideas for the Ohio State weekend so I didn’t even know I was going to be writing this until a few days before. I don’t even think they told me about it, I was just searching through the budget one day and I was like, ‘oh, there’s my name next to this story.’
“I didn’t even know who George Henderson was at the time, but then I looked him up and thought ‘wow, this would be a pretty fascinating guy to talk to.’
“So no, I didn’t pitch it but I was very excited about it.”
Q: Did you guys talk at all about what they wanted to see out of the story or was it kind of like a situation where you had journalistic freedom to go and see what happens?
A: “It was pretty free reign. I mean, we had the basic story idea and I think Andrew had decided he wanted to do a Q&A style, which I think worked best because it allowed Henderson to really speak and have his voice be loudest.”
Q: So that was a decision that was made before the reporting happened?
A: “Yes. I think it was actually on the budget like that.”
Q: Do you think that style added anything to it? Maybe, if you had done it a different way some of the things he said would have lost their meaning?
A: “I really do. I think that I didn’t need to add a lot of my own voice to this just because his was so powerful.
“Originally, I tried to edit it down because it was an incredibly long interview. I transcribed at least 3,000 words and I messaged Andrew and said, ‘hey I’ve cut this down, I think it’s way too long in full,’ and he said, ‘well, send it to me in full and let’s see what we can do,’ and we ended up printing the whole thing.
“I tried to cut it because I just didn’t think we could print something this long. I did recognize the value in everything he was saying but I was trying to, I don’t know, I guess provide the essentials since I didn’t think we’d be able to put something out that was that huge.
“I was really pleasantly surprised.”
Q: Do you think that was that the right decision to run it in full?
A: “I really do. I think that everything he had to say was valuable. And I did feel bad cutting some stuff out so I was pleased that Andrew saw the value in keeping it in full.”
Q: I don’t know about you but I got this sense reading your story that everything was just so heavy in its substance and that there wasn’t really a point throughout where I felt like ‘oh this isn’t all that important.’ Did you get that sense while you were talking to Dr. Henderson and hearing these things first hand?
A: “Yeah, I thought he didn’t need a lot of prompting either. I’d ask a question and he’d go on for five to eight minutes just talking.
“I knew it during the interview where… sometimes when you get to your recording you hear things and think ‘oh these are good quotes,’ but even during the actual interview I was thinking wow, this is going to be really good. I got that feeling.
“It’s like listening to someone read poetry, that was how it was to listen to him talk. It was really just awe-inspiring sitting there listening to him.”
Q: So you’re talking to him about racial issues and tensions and his experiences, was there ever a time during your conversation that got maybe a little heavy or raw?
A: “I think that he made it be not awkward.
“I was a little apprehensive going in just because I had never talked about that before and I didn’t know how to phrase things maybe, but I think he has just had so much experience with and talked about this so much that it was very natural for him and it wasn’t awkward at all.”
Q: What was the most memorable part of your conversation with him?
A: “I think I walked out of it very… I don’t know, he had a lot of hope in OU students and the changes we’re seeing now, even in comparison to the changes he saw.”
