The free, two-day webinar, “Getting the Goods – Interviews that Work,” was held May 8-9, 2013. Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski explores the core purposes, techniques and ethics of the interview process. She reveals different interview approaches that work best in different situations and that apply to any genre of journalism. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN SESSION 1: Interviewing for article; getting access and getting the goods SESSION 2: Interviewing for story; creating storytelling partners SELF-GUIDED LESSON At your own pace, review the session materials below to strengthen your storytelling with excellent interviewing skills. PowerPoint presentations Getting the Goods — Session 1 Getting the Goods — Session 2 MORE ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski is the Knight Chair in Editing at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She worked as a projects editor at The Oregonian in Portland and at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota. She spent 18 years as a beat reporter and take-out writer at newspapers in the Northwest and the Midwest. While at the Pioneer Press, her series “AIDS in the Heartland” – an intimate look at the life and death of a gay farm couple – won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing and a national Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. She has written from Kurdistan and Antarctica, and has made Page One with dog obituaries and criminal investigations. She has edited several award-winning projects, including the work of The Oregonian’s Tom Hallman Jr., which won the 1997 ASNE Best Writing Award. Banaszynski, a native of a Wisconsin farm village, is a 1974 graduate of Marquette University. She has taught journalism at the Poynter Institute, the National Writers Workshops, APME NewsTrain, the University of Kansas and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Banaszynski has served four times as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes. For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.org.

1. Getting
the
Goods:
Interviews
that
Work
Jacqui
Banaszynski
Knight
Chair
in
Editing
at
the
University
of
Missouri
May
8-­‐9,
2013

2. THE MASTERS: Metzler, Sawatsky
• KEN METZLER: Longtime
professor and author from
University of Oregon. Wrote
‘Bible’ of interviewing texts.
• JOHN SAWATSKY: Canadian
investigative reporter and
university professor; ESPN
interviewing coach
• Studied and shared wisdom about
effective questions

3. POWER OF WHAT?
HOW? WHY?
• WHAT questions seek
more information, scene,
anecdote.
• HOW questions get at
explanation and causality.
• WHY questions get at
motivation, attitude,
character, opinion.Photo by flickr user Andreas Kollegger

4. LET’S WORK ON QUESTIONS
• ASSIGNMENT: Interview a
50-something factory worker
who lost his job in the
recession. He’s not old
enough to retire, not young
enough to retrain.
Your curiosity:
How does it feel to be in your
situation? Photo by flickr user Workers4America
Let’s find questions that help him answer.
Frame your interest in What? How? Why? questions.

5. TIP 1: REVEAL EMOTION and
CHARACTER
• Ask not how people feel (or think)
but what they do.
– What did you do on the last day at work?
Right after you locked the doors for the
last time?
• Ask about specific moments or
actions.
– What was your favorite day on the job?
• Put questions in a frame.
– What will you miss most?
– If there are three things you could have
done differently, what would they be?
Photo by flickr user merfam

6. THE MASTERS: Isabel Wilkerson
on “Accelerated Intimacy”
• Interviewing as relationship
• Interviewing as multi-phase
process
• Approach and attitude more
important than specific
questions
– Audition for the right subject/
storyteller
– Create partners
– Create storytellers

7. POLL QUESTION 1
What are the
primary reasons
people are
motivated to talk
to reporters?
Photos by flickr users Reporter de
Futuro and Reporter do Futuro

8. TIP 2: CREATE PARTNERS
• Give subjects a
reason to invest
and trust.
– Tap their
motivation.
• Demystify your
process, but keep
needed control.
Photo by flickr user Studio Roosegaarde

9. What does off-the-record mean?
POLL QUESTION 2
Photo by rpongsaj

10. TIP 3: NEGOTIATE TERMS UP
FRONT
• Don’t assume shared
understanding or agreement.
• Explain your purpose, process and
context.
• Determine source concerns.
– Ask questions to find solutions.
Photo by flickr user Victor1558

11. TIP 4: DIFFERENTIATE SOURCES,
RELATIONSHIPS & ETHICS
• Officials, public figures,
experts, celebrities
– Equal players, power dynamics
• Vulnerable
– Considerations of ethics, ID,
credibility and compassion
• Ordinary folk
– Context and “informed consent”
Photo by flickr user jturn

12. POLL QUESTION #3
How/where do
you do the
majority of your
interviews?
Photo by flickr user Shine 2010 - 2010 World Cup good news

13. TIP 5: SPEND TIME, SLOW DOWN
• Plan ahead to maximize
time.
• Pace the interview with
your notebook.
• Give people time to think,
remember, articulate.
• Probe and peel.
-- With What? How? Why? questions
Photo by flickr user sskennel

14. TIP 6: FOR EVERY QUESTION,
ASK 5 MORE
• Be an active, interested
listener.
• Listen and develop
storyteller questions:
– “Start at the beginning.”
– “Give me an example.”
– “Tell me about a time.”
– “Tell me more.”
– “Uh huh.” “Wow.” Hmmm.”
– Really? Really! Really.
Photo by flickr user gmilldrum

15. TIP 7: KEEP SHUT UP
• Let silence work for you….

16. LET’S WORK ON QUESTIONS
• ASSIGNMENT: You must do a
deadline interview/profile of a
local artisan who won a
MacArthur Genius Grant. He
handcrafts bows for stringed
instruments, and has found a
way to bridge the best of old-
world standards and modern
music expectations.
Photo by flickr user Eduardo
Francés Bruno - Luthier
Your curiosity: What was your reaction, and what, exactly is it
you do that makes you so smart?
What questions could help you gather color, emotion and
sparkling quotes very quickly?

17. TIP 8: SEEK OUT “NATIVE HABITAT”
• Try to interview or envision
people in the context that
informs the story purpose.
• Set a scene or see action.
• Notice meaningful details or
surroundings.
• Use props or artifacts as
storytelling prompts.
– Photographs, books, personal
treasures
– Status details (report out for
relevancy)
Photo by flickr user U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Northeast Region

18. TIP 9: REPORT WITH ALL SENSES
• Pay attention not just to what
the person says but to…
– Other sounds
– Sights
– Touch
– Taste
– Smell
Use sensory detail to paint
scenes or to prompt better
questions.
Photo by flickr user gingerbydesign

19. And the SIXTH SENSE
• Pay attention to your own
emotion or perception.
– Tap your humanity.
– Inform reader reaction/
curiosity through your own.
– Channel it into better
questions.

20. Poll Question #4
• On average,
how long are
most of your
interviews?
Photo by flickr user wwarby

21. TIP 10: BE COLUMBO
• Always do a second interview.
• Move to a close, then reopen.
– Linger and listen.
– Ask what is most important to know or
understand.
– Ask for elaboration on a gap in your
notebook.
– Ask whom else to talk to or what
others would say..
• Use fact-checking as a second
interview.
• ALWAYS ask… “How do you know?” Photo copyright NBC Universal
Television

22. TIP 11: DARE TO BE STUPID
• Ask what you don’t know or
don’t understand.
• Ask what you think you know
that you might not.
• Clarify terms, jargon,
understanding.
– Restate it in your own
language or understanding.
• Seek plain-speak analogies
or examples.
Photo by flickr user Candie_N

23. QUESTIONS?
• Email:
Banaszynskij@missouri.edu
• Twitter: @JacquiB
Photo by flickr user Marco Bellucci