If there's one thing I've learned from working here so far, it's that in-person interviews are much easier than interviews over the phone. In fact, I think it's much easier for both people. When you're sitting in front of someone, making eye contact, nodding in agreement, etc. you both feel engaged in a comfortable conversation. On the phone, it's slightly awkward and the other person tends to ramble for a lot longer, probably out of fear that I'm not finding their dialogue very interesting.
Some people ramble on the phone for an extremely long time, and others barely say anything -- which is really difficult because then I don't have any decent quotes to work with. I interviewed Paul Stanley (a member of KISS) the other day, and he gave a 10 minute answer to just one question. The next day, I interviewed Sebu (from Capital Cities) and he gave 3-word answers! You'd think someone would have more to say if they were opening for Katy Perry's tour...
Technological issues are always my biggest fear though. As a reporter, you have to record EVERYTHING. First of all, it's nearly impossible to write down everything that someone is saying on the spot. Second of all (especially with big-name artists) it's important to record everything just in case they later deny that something was said during the interview -- otherwise it's your word against their word, and that's a sticky situation. Long story short, if your recording device doesn't work properly with the phone interview, your whole interview is a goner.
My boss said that one time she accidentally erased an entire in-person interview with Jason Aldean. She had to re-do the interview and made him cupcakes as an apology! Good thing all the country artists seem to like her a lot. I can see why, too. She's super nice and does everything she can to make them look good for the press.
- Greg Hicks
(Music reporting intern for The Tennessean)
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ReplyDeletei Greg,
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to this. I am interning in the recruitment department of a huge health care network that hires personnel for the hospitals in the network, ranging from the nurses all the way down to the custodial and cafeteria staff. While I haven't conducted my own formal interviews in person yet, I have screened candidate's resumes and, assuming their resumes are good, I call them to ask a few preliminary questions. It's definitely difficult for both the interviewer and interviewee on the phone for many reasons. You can't tell their body language or their appearance, their could be technological issues, or someone could come off better or worse than they would in person, misguiding your opinion of them which for my internship is crucial. The people you're interviewing are certainly cooler than the ones I'm hiring to work in the cafeterias of my local hospitals, but nonetheless talking to people on the phone is not as easy as it looks!
That must be so weird to talk to such famous people over the phone… Especially to those that give short answers! Their lives are so different than ours, you would think they could give you some sort of information.
ReplyDeleteFor my job working for a state representative, we have to call constituents in our district, and even that for me is hard because they all have particular problems that they're calling us about, and its really hard to be personable and empathetic over the phone. I definitely know where you're coming from!
This blog posts definitely sounds like you had an amazing internship this summer. It is so puzzling to hear that well known celebrities give such short answers, you would assume that they would have a lot to talk about.
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