A Day in The Life- Reflections on Interviewing like a Journalist

...And fresh-baked bread! Who doesn't love warm, buttered bread on a windy spring day??

I must admit right off the bat that my first experiences with interviewing were a real challenge. I am much more familiar with writing in the sense of articulating my own thoughts on paper. To add the elements of taking and recording notes, formulating appropriate questions in order to draw forth compelling answers, and generating good conversation is a huge area of newness for me. After conducting three interviews and requesting others, I find myself appreciating news articles and stories with a much more appreciative eye for the elements that go into being a good and strategic journalist. I am by nature a rather introverted person with a deep desire to acquire stronger interpersonal skills that will benefit future communications. 

At its' core, communication is the ability to draw compelling conclusions from provocative questions. Stories engage others by providing this format. We need to lay out the basics of the topic, but beyond that, readers also want to get a sense of how the story might relate to them and perhaps something in the way of a new, unheard perspective that deepens/enhances the overall picture and the voices we hear from. I've noticed that there are instances where stories take shape around unlikely sources. While it might make sense to interview a farmer about issues surrounding renewable energy encroaching on Maine farmland, for instance, it also makes great sense to reach out and hear from solar developers, too. No story has a single side and I believe it is integral where journalism is considered to account for all sides to the best of our investigative ability. We cannot paint whole pictures without seeing the whole landscape.

Overall, I found myself agonizing for a long time over questions beforehand, and then during the interviews I found myself to be more comfortable with flowing along with the conversation rather than sticking to the rough "script." I found that I could have been better about the scattered notes I took, relying less on recordings and more on better-articulated notes directly following interviews. 

Things I enjoyed about the experience were getting to know people in the community on a deeper level and from all brackets of society, so to speak. We think of the world so often in terms of how we see it or the people we relate to. To hear multiple responses and sides weighing in on one issue is where the magic of communication unfolds. As the interviews took shape I found myself really painting a picture of the issue in a more broad sense. My major conclusion is that journalism has everything to do with the qualities of listening and engaging people and allowing a story to unfold naturally from there. These interviews are the major marrow behind any good story. I look forward to conducting more interviews in the future with this newfound sense of understanding for the process.