Today's interviewing insight -- and it works for all media, in most situations

An excerpt from a Poynter post of podcaster Jesse Thorn. The link to the entire Q&A is here.

If you had to pick one interviewing technique that you’ve learned that all journalists should be using, but aren’t, what would that be?

There is a question that you can ask that I learned from This American Life’s comic book, which came out many years ago. And in it, Ira refers to one of those old public radio dudes who’s perfect at their job and has been doing it forever, that there is one question that you can ask in any situation. I am embarrassed to say this, but I probably use it every two weeks on average, so that would be one in three interviews, let’s say. And it is, essentially, ‘What did you think it was going to be like, what did it turn out to be, and how do they compare?’ And you can ask that about anything.

Ira explains that very insightfully. I mean, Ira is the first episode of The Turnaround because he is the person I know who has thought the most about his craft and why he makes every move that he makes. He’s a guy who worked at NPR for 20 years before he started This American Life, and I think that whole time he was plotting This American Life.

Ira is a genius with this. Ira says, ‘That is a perfect question because it automatically inspires reflection.' It inspires a compare and contrast that fundamentally asks, ‘What does this mean?’ And that is the work of most interviews, is to try and hear the story that contains the information and then hear the meaning of that. And people don’t usually offer both of those at the same time, but this question sort of automatically demands them.

Teaching interviewing: a fundamental skill

From Brian Wilson, of Michigan, on the JEA listserv on Jan. 3:
I use a press-conference format as a way to teach caption writing, too. I ask my photo editor to find a variety of strong action photos and then I invite the subjects of those photos to class. I have the staffers fire off questions, press-conference style, based on what's happening in the photo. They eventually have to write a four-part caption (kicker, photo explanation, background, quote) for each of the photos. We share them in class.

This started because I realized that, in general, my staffers weren't asking very good questions of their interview subjects on their own. When they hear others ask them, they start to figure out the approach. I'm always amazed at the depth of information that comes up when we do this.

Anyway, if you're looking for a good place to start press-conferencing, maybe just look for some good photos.

And that got me thinking, so I replied with this:
I love Brian's approach, combining interviewing skills with finding news pegs and incorporating personality-revealing quotes. And it occurs to me that the photo doesn't have to be all that amazing for this to work.

I am thinking of Jim Richardson (a brilliant keynoter during the recent Kansas City convention) and his now out-of-print book "High School USA," published in 1979. Many of the amazing captions that accompanied the insightful (but often mundane) photographs he took of a small Kansas high school over a year are simply the transcribed and edited comments of people pictured. I treasure my copy of the book, and recommend searching for it online. I found 13 copies from various sellers at http://tinyurl.com/bfkx2ol

And that reminds me of a feature that used to run in the New York Times Magazine, called "What Were They Thinking?" (I regret that I no longer have samples of this feature -- perhaps Bob Greenman can point us to the correct archives...) The concept was simple: run a seemingly run-of-the-mill news photograph, and simply interview someone in the photo who could provide context and related information about that news. It was analagous to visting your grandparents' home and hearing extensive anecdotes about a posed photo circa 1912. Suddenly the photo pulsed with life, and real people emerged from the grim, stiff faces.

I have no problems with the 3-4 sentence extended caption, but wonder if readers might be very well-served by simply adding a knowledgable "voice" -- lightly filtered -- to our photographs.

So, Brian, thanks for reminding us that great caption writing is almost always the result of great interviewing.

Happy New Year!