More about interviewing

More thinking about interviewing

This happened at the White House

Adele

Serena

Brad Pitt

interview activity

Interview one of your classmates and write up his/her responses in narrative (story) form. The purpose is to create an informative and fun-to-read profile on one of your classmates. You will share parts of your interview with the class. Your write-up should be 400 to 500 words. 

(ask all of these)

1. What interests you about media (web design, writing, photography, graphic design, power, prestige, etc)?
2. Why did you sign up for the class? What are you expecting?
3. Do you consider yourself a self-starter? Why or why not?
4. Define, in your own words, what it means to be independent.
5. What does it mean to be a team-player?
6. How well do you think you work under pressure? Why?
7. What motives you?
8. What are you passionate about?
9. What is your greatest strength (academically)?
10. What is your greatest academic weakness? What do you struggle with?
11. Would you rather do something just to get it done, or do it with the intent of doing it well?
12. How do you define the term "quality?"
13. Would you rather explain a complex idea simply or a simple idea complexly? Why?
14. Why types of media do you read? When, and for how long?
15. What is your favorite publication? Do you have a favorite writer or columnist?

(ask at least 15 of these)

1. What do you do when not in school?
2. Do you work?
3. What sports do you play? Activities? Musical instruments?
4. Are you in or do you plan to join any clubs? If so, what and why?
5. What are some of your fears? Hopes? Dreams?
6. Give an example of a time you failed.
7. Give an example of a time you succeeded. How did you feel? Why?
8. Who are your role models? People you look up to or think are cool?
9. Who or what do you aspire to be?
10. What do you hope to be doing in 10 years?
11. Describe some of your biggest challenges.
12. What comes easy to you?
13. Do you consider yourself a cat (more independent) or a dog (less independent)?
14. What kind of music do you like? Why?
15. What kind of music do you dislike? Why?
16. Describe your ideal outfit. What do you like to wear?
17. What would you never be caught dead in?
18. What is your favorite movie/food/sports team/book/performer/politician? Why?
19. If you could meet three people, alive or dead, who would they be? Why?
20. What do you consider yourself an authority on? What do you know a lot about?
21. What are you good at?
22. What are some things you aren't knowledgeable on? What would you like to learn about?
23. List some shortcomings or deficiencies.
24. What part(s) of yourself would you like to improve?
25. If you could visit three places, anywhere in the world, where would they be?
26. What is your favorite animal/plant/insect/color?
27. If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Why?
28. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

For your creative interview also think through these questions.

For each source you interview, answer the prompts below:

1. Note time, date and place of the interview
2. Why did you choose this source for your story? 
3. How is this source credible? 
4. How did you to prepare for the interview?
5. Which of your questions were most effective, if any?  Least effective, if any?
6. What did you learn about interviewing, if anything?
7. Summarize what information you gleaned from the interview that you can use in your story.

Read this and tell me about the use of quotes

Could you have done this from the quotes that you have? 

The art of the interview

Part One – The agenda

• Determine the purpose or goal of the interview.
• Develop a brief statement that tells why this interview is being conducted.
• Specifically identify how this information will be used.
• Make a list of the information required.
• Draft questions that, when answered, will provide the necessary information to satisfy your goal. 
• Make the questions flow. 

Part Two – Questions and questioning techniques

• Open questions – questions of feeling, perspective, prejudice or stereotypes "How would you?" Make the demand about something. 
• Closed questions – yes/no tunnel sequence often needs more open and probing questions to round out the interview. 
• Probing questions – Follow-up question on vague, superficial or inaccurate information.

Part Three - push the probe

Elaboration – “What happened next?” “Could you go into that more?” “How did you feel about that?”

Clarification – “What do you mean by the word BLAH?” “Could you provide examples of what you mean by BLAH?”

Repetition – When the interview didn’t hear or is trying to evade the question. Repeat the question exactly as originally stated.

Confrontations – Calls attention to inconsistencies, misinterpretations or contradictions. These are best asked at the end of the interview after ideas are established from open and closed questions.

Mirror statements – Reflective or summary statements that indicate if the interviewee is being understood. “In other words, you are saying" . . .” Let me see if I am understanding you . . .”

Neutral phrases – Demonstrates attention, indicates interest and encouragement to keep people talking. “Oh” “I see” “Go on” “Wow” “And then?”

Silence – A powerful probe that gives both the interviewee and the interviewer time to think. Don’t rush through as this may be the only opportunity to talk with this person. Silence distinguishes the novice from the skilled interviewer.

Some experts give tips and strategies ESPN 

Here is a video of Sawtasky

How to start an interview 

Turn on your recording device NOW

Have them say and spell their name

Have them say their title

Listen, actively

Your source is a teacher

If they say something you don’t understand, ask them a follow-up or ask them to explain it in a different way

Even if you are recording, keep a pen and paper handy to write a note to yourself about something you might want to ask later.

Quotes, Quotes, Quotes

As the novelist Elmore Leonard said, “When people talk, readers listen.” In interviews, the writer listens for the telling remark that illuminates the person or the situation. Leonard says he lets his characters do the work of advancing his story by talking. He gets out of the way.

“Readers want to hear them, not me.”

Listen to the singer Lorrie Morgan talk about her problems: 

After her husband, the singer Keith Whitley, died of alcohol poisoning, Morgan was only offered slow, mournful ballads by her songwriters, she said in an interview with The Tennessean of Nashville.

“I mean, it was all kinds of dying songs,” she said. But then she fell in love with Clint Black's bus driver, and she decided to change her tunes.

“I said, 'I'm not going to do that. I'm not basing my career on a tragedy.' I live the tragedy every day without it being in my music.” Her life, she said, has turned around, thanks to her new love. “He's a wonderful, wonderful guy. This guy is very special, and I'm into him real bad.” However, not too long afterward Lorrie’s love life took a detour ¾ her affections switched to a politician.

For reader interest, for enthralled reading and viewing, direct contact with the individual interviewed is best achieved by letting interviewees speak.

Research shows that quotations are useful. S. Shyan Sundar of Pennsylvania State University found “the credibility and quality of stories with quotations to be significantly higher than identical stories without quotations.”

The Purpose Of Storyboarding

The basics of storyboarding

From Berkley - best explanation of the whys of storyboarding

What can I learn from using a storyboard - and what is the difference?

1. It is a better way to organize your thoughts than a typical outline
2. It helps you think through the where and when and what you will use media in what spot
3. Helps you to visualize each part of the design plan

Thinking through story(ies)

Think about your pictures and what is the story that they tell.

You need to think of five things:

Who?   What?   Where?   When?   Why?   How?

Any good story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your brain and they must become second nature.

For example, if you wish to write a story about a local sports team entering a competition you will need to answer these questions:

• Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters?
• What sport do they play? What is the competition?
• Where is the competition? Where is the team normally based?
• When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there any other important time factors?
• Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why does the team exist at all?
• How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise? How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to win?

Embracing Creative Processes

You need to know how you "make" something. Here are some ideas to get you into the habit of working your creative process.

10 Ideas from Shutterstock

The Five-Step Process 

A very different perspective

Write in your sacred notebook for Monday your baby steps towards being creative and how you worked through the War of Art assignment. 

We are half-way through!

What is in store for the rest of the semester?

Improving your storytelling
Learning storyboarding
Reading War of Art
The art of interviewing
Simple audio and video techniques
Being on time
Quizzes!

How do you become a storyteller?

A teller of stories, the person who everyone goes to in order to hear interesting details, get the nuance, "see" the story they missed. What do these people have in common? They are good communicators. Why is being a good communicator important? 








Interesting information on woman and storytelling. 

“communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed”         

(James W. Carey)

           













            Our stories help define our culture

          We know who we are by the stories we tell each other and the stories that we accept.    
          We judge people, places, events, EVERYTHING based on our self-definition. 

          Change in culture comes when we disregard the story.

      Culture as a Skyscraper:

High culture

Low culture

       Different media for each

But many people consume both.

Culture as a Map:

Culture is an ongoing, changing process.

Modern vs. postmodern values

                 "Culture...was becoming increasingly organized during the twentieth century. And the model for that organization was the hierarchical, bureaucratic corporation.”

— Jackson Lears, Historian

                                                          (He’s a Marxist)

Does popular culture cheapen public life?

Some who likes Beethoven also like American Idol.

Did The Munsters rip off Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?

TV sets in use for more than seven hours a day

More refined culture struggles to find an audience

Popular media may inhibit social progress by transforming us into cultural dupes.

We have been seduced by the promise of products

            (Marxism)

The “Big Mac” theory: We have lost our discriminating taste for finer fare.

What would make us disregard the story?

•           Something personal?
•           A change in media perhaps?

                      

        Get better friends

 What is the story that changed you?

There is no judgment here just a hard look at yourself and what you do. Remember, the unexamined life is not worth living. You can use Morning Pages to begin to figure this out. 


For Friday

Start reading the book War of Art and mark your favorite passages for discussion. This book will be the basis for your next assignment.