INTERVIEWING AND LISTENING SKILLS

Interviewing is a skill every journalist needs to master, yet evidence in the work of writers, broadcasters and other media practitioners shows many fail to handle them well. On the whole, interviewees do not know what is expected of them, so the journalists who knows how to set people at ease, ask the right types of questions, signpost and summarise well - face-to-face or on the telephone - will be the one to capture essence of a good story.

Journalism skills addressed during the course

1. •Interviewing
   

2. •Listening
   

3. •Body language
   

4. •Story structure.
   

Course Objectives 

After completing the course, participants can expect to be able to:

1. •Define different question types
   

2. •Use open questions to obtain good quotes
   

3. •Summarise offered points to enhance accuracy
   

4. •Use sweeper questions to extend the length of an interview
   

5. •Deploy notebooks in the most effective manner.
   

Course Outline

The course simulates a breaking story. Journalists start by writing and are then offered the opportunity to interview players in the evolving news event. Learning reviews require participants in facilitated discussions to extract learning points from the output of all writers, to build better interviewing checklists  for use after the course.

Terms explained during the course

Open and closed questions, feeling questions, sweeper questions, dress code and body language, interviewee reaction monitoring.

Pre-course work

Pre-course reading, learning agreements and a short evaluation to establish existing knowledge of interviewing methodology.