Journalism Workshop: Asking the Right Questions

The reason I chose to do this workshop was because I am considering taking a journalism module next year for university. I thought this workshop would be a good place to start and to find out more about what the journalism module may be like.

I learnt that ‘everyone has a story because everyone is unique, which I love because you can never really run out of stories to write about.

These are a few things I've learnt:

Having an exciting interview

If your interviewing a celebrity it’s likely that they have already been interviewed by other journalists and have been asked the same basic questions over and over again. These questions are going to become boring for them and the audience. So, when interviewing a celebrity throw in some interesting and enjoyable questions for the interviewee to answer so that they and the audience are entertained.

Some of these questions may include: When was your first kiss? What was the first thing who bought yourself? What is one thing that you have never told anyone? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

These may seem that completely unrelated questions to your topic but you can try to mold them round what you are talking about and it’s just to make the interview a little more fun.

Awkward interviewees

Here are some of the tips I learnt to try to make an interview the least awkward as you can:

• Direct your interview- don’t let the interviewee control it

• Focus on the questions

• Drive the narrative

• Try to reign the interview back if you lose control

• Never make it personal- get quotes from elsewhere and apply it

• Look for cues e.g smiling, body movements, uncomfortableness to see how the interviewee feels

• Relax and try to mimic a conversation

• Listen

Questions with purpose

I learnt that you should ask questions with a purpose and try to think about the following things:

• Not just what happened but why?

• What will the effect of this be?

• How will it change things?

Don’t forget the basics!

Remember names and how to spell them, ages to make sure what your talking about is relatable to them, what job do they have and where are they.

The top tips

• Good journalism is about reaction and emotion

• Get to the emotion but be empathetic

• Play devils advocate- who disagrees?

• Get a contacts book and protect it with your life

• If you don’t ask, someone else will

• What haven’t they been asked already?

‘Good questions inform, great questions transform.’- Ken Colemen

‘Before you abuse, criticize and accuse, walk a mile in their shoes.’- Elvis Presley