Talk Straight, Listen Carefully

Interviewing is a vital tool for journalists. In Talk Straight, Listen Carefully, the authors and other seasoned journalists share their interviewing experience and explain how to successfully approach all types of people, extract information, and gain solid material. Print and broadcast students and journalists will find far more than the standard interviewing tips, including: The qualitative differences between “hard news’ interviews and feature or profile story interviews Strategies for obtaining hard-to-get interviews Methods for managing unwilling, shy, hostile, and fearful sources Techniques for "interviewing on the run" Interview-related ethical questions and dilemmas Getting to sources beyond the initial interview Extracting color and human interest from an interview

Acknowledgments vii The Need for an Interview and How to Get One 3 Preparing for the Interview 15 What Is Your Objective 33 Interviewing on the Run 47 Breaking Down the Barriers 64 The Phone: An Essential Tool 95 Interviewing for Features 109 Strategic Interviews 124 The Ethical Interviewer 146 Cleaning It All Up 176 Writing It All Down 185 Bibliography 205