Interviewing Sources 101
Expert interview tips from a lawyer and New Creator Corps fellow
Hi crew! A few months ago, I shared an opportunity to join the News Creator Corps fellowship. Well, myself and a few other members made it to the first cohort!
We’ve spent the last few weeks diving into topics to help combat misinformation online. Today, I want to share more about how to conduct an expert interview.
It’s funny because when I left law to be a travel writer, a lot of people thought the two careers were unrelated. In fact, the same skills that helped me be an effective legal advocate (storytelling, persuasive writing, fact checking) also help me to be a good journalist.
As a writer, you may need to interview a source (or multiple sources) for an article. You could have the chance to interview celebrities, government officials, and CEOs. You might be conducting interviews in person, over the phone, or via email.
Either way, interviewing is a skill that will increase your desirability and demand as a writer.
For today’s weekly in-depth 101 post, I want to share what I learned in the News Creator Corps fellowship from guest instructor Gene Park on how to interview sources, a lot of which is in keeping with my legal training.
Gene is a professional journalist of 21 years. He has worked at and covered:
Pacific Daily News (crime, education, business, military)
Honolulu Star-Advertiser (crime, transportation
Civil Beat (community management)
Washington Post (social media management, video games)
Let’s dive in!
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
When you’re going to call a witness to the stand, you don’t want there to be any surprises. You prepare like crazy beforehand, running through all your questions and anticipating any possible objections.
Similarly, before an interview you need to research the person you’re going to be interviewing. What have they said publicly about the topic you’re going to be discussing?
Prepare a list of questions so that you can go through them, but actively listen to the answers you’re getting so you can adapt as needed and incorporate their answers into your next question, instead of just reading formulaically.
Let your source talk
There are two types of witnesses in a courtroom — witnesses who are on your side, considered friendly witnesses, and witnesses on the other party’s side, considered adversarial or hostile witnesses.
When you have a friendly witness, your job is to let them talk. You want them to tell their story with minimal direction and guidance from you. To achieve this, you ask open ended questions.
When you have an adversarial witness, it’s the opposite. You want to direct their answers and leave them very little room for debate or discussion, asking leading and yes/no questions.
With a source, you want to give them room to speak. Ask them to elaborate, explain their process, tell you more about something, take you through something. This leads to a lengthier answer and more interesting interview.
Gene suggests asking probing questions that no one else has asked based on your research.
Start with an informal conversation
You’re either the kind of person that appreciates small talk or you’re not, but in the world, you have to deal with it. It’s a necessary part of life.
In the courtroom, when you call a witness to the stand, you let them give a back story and warm their way into the testimony. They introduce themselves, tell you what they do for a living, etc. You may even hear objections as to relevance and an attorney saying, “we’re getting there Your Honor, some leeway please.” Small talk is important.
Gene says connecting with a source is the same. You want to start by asking them questions that are low pressure and don’t really have a wrong answer to put them at ease and get them to feel comfortable conversing with you.
It should feel like a friendly exchange, not an interrogation.
Confirm details and re-ask the question
When an adversarial witness dodges a question on the stand, you ask it in a different way. You ask it in a way that they have to answer, or the lack of an answer speaks for itself.
Gene says it’s the same with journalism. Sometimes a source may try to dodge answering a difficult question.
It’s OK to ask again, or in a different way where their evasiveness is evident and stands in sharp contrast to your direct approach. In other words, not answering is answer enough.
Let people know that you’re recording
This is a privacy law that actually varies depending on the state, with some places only requiring one party to consent to the recording, not both. Also, you generally don’t need consent to record in public since there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in public — it’s public.
However, for the purposes of building goodwill, Gene recommends you let a source know before you begin that you will be recording. To make the source feel at ease, you can make it an audio only recording if they don’t want their face shown.
You can also reassure them that the recording will not be publicized, only used to confirm and verify the contents of the interview.
Set expectations regarding next steps
The same way you prepare a client for a case going either way, especially if it goes to jury, anything can happen to an article when it goes for publication. An editor might scrap it, change the title, use a different picture. None of that is really within your control as a writer, unless you’re publishing on your own independently owned platform.
At the end of the interview, it helps to set expectations regarding publication date (a few weeks, a few months, timeline unknown) and the fact that edits would only be made for factual corrections, not opinions or style.
Gene also made a good point at the beginning of his presentation on how people pay more attention to media when their faces are in it. When you publish an article that has a source in it, share it with that source. Chances are high they’ll eagerly share with their networks and expand your article’s reach, because they’re happy to be featured.
Let me know if you found this helpful and want me to cover other topics we’ve discussed in the cohort, like AI for creator and how creators can partner with newsrooms on collaborative opportunities across digital formats.