Lockdown Skillbuilders: How to bag a brilliant interview

The job of journalism has been made more challenging by the pandemic. In particular, social distancing and working from home have changed interviewing, an essential element of the job, made challenging by home working and having to engage with people through the barrier of a screen. But it’s still possible to bag a brilliant interview for print, web and broadcast.

This two-hour course looks at how to find and access interviewees, research and plan questions and set up technology to ensure we have the best chance of a successful interview. The course will also examine the psychology of interviews and how to get the most out of the people we’re interviewing, without technology getting in the way.

Who is the course aimed at?

All journalists and reporters who carry out interviews as part of their work, whether it’s for print, web or broadcast. This will be a useful guide for beginners, and a timely refresher for more experienced journalists in light of the pandemic.

What will the course cover?

• Working at home; has Covid-19 changed the interview?
• Consents: reporting restrictions; on/off the record; copy/question approval
• Public places; schools, hospitals and courts
• Vulnerable people: children; bereaved; severely/terminally ill people; confidential sources
• Research; listing the right questions
• Arranging the interview and getting to the right person
• Personal profiles and experience interviews
• Facts, figures and numbers interviews; bringing data and statistics to life
• Formats: the chat versus the interrogation etc
• Setups compared: face-to-face; phone; computer audio; computer video; email
• Essential checks before and after the interview
• Establishing empathy
• Helping people relax and feel comfortable
• Encouraging people to share; handling resistance
• An interview set up deconstructed
• Question type
• Awkward questions; handling avoidance
• Apps and online software compared: Skype; Teams; Zoom
• Equipment: recording on mobile phones or digital recorders; better mics; better cameras
• Perfect audio and video backgrounds; avoiding unwanted images or sounds

What do I need to prepare?

• Prior to the event, please email a couple of sentences with details of the subject you cover and your work role together with specific areas and examples of real case studies that you would like to cover so that they can be incorporated into the training.
• On the day, it helps to focus the event if you bring your in-progress work to discuss, along with examples of any material that may have raised relevant issues in the past.
• Throughout the workshop we will be evaluating video/written interviews and there will be exercises, discussions and Q&A sessions.

What equipment do I need?

• Laptop / tablet with internet access and pen and paper for taking notes.

Who is the tutor?

Dan Lee has been a journalist since 1989. In addition, he has been an editorial consultant, media coach, and academic since the late noughties. He works for numerous organisations, including Channel 4, Chemical Watch, Evening Standard, Health Service Journal, The Guardian, The Independent, the NCTJ, The Times, and various universities. He has written a number of books.

Dan has extensive experience of teaching on, designing and leading undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses for Birkbeck, University of London, the NCTJ, and various industry trainers and other organisations including NUJ Training Wales.