JOU 1000 April 16, 2020 CLASS

1. JOU 1000
Introduction to Journalism
Professor Michael Rizzo
Director, Journalism Program
Division of Mass Communication
College of Professional Studies
April 16, 2020

2. JOU 1000
Introduction to Journalism
Previous Class – April 15
Interviewing

3. JOU 1000
Introduction to Journalism
TODAY’S CLASS
More on Interviewing

4. RECAP
Research – be well read about
your city, country and world
Ask open ended questions
Be fearless
Be tough – dig for information

5. Reminder
• Check for any assignment
where you got a 0 grade
• Check for any missing
assignments
• “.pages” submissions cannot
be opened by BlackBoard.
Re-submit assignments as PDFs
so they can be re-graded.

9. Interviewing
What’s the most important information you
want to get out of the person you’re
interviewing for a profile story? Who is this
person? Why should we care about this
person? What makes this person interesting?
What’s the most important information you
want to get out of the person connected to
breaking news? What new information or
insight can they provide?

10. What’s the value of asking open-ended
questions? You get expansive answers. But just
because it’s phrased as open-ended doesn’t
guarantee an expansive answer.
“Were you born in Chicago?” gets a yes-or-no
answer. “Where were you born?” still gets a one
word answer: Chicago.
“What was it like growing up in Chicago?” is an
open-ended question that shows you did your
research and coaxes a reflective response from
your interviewee.

11. Some open-ended questions are weak.
“How do you feel?” to a player after they won
the Super Bowl or a person just elected to the
job they campaigned for is a weak question.
“How do you feel winning the game after your
best/worst running-catching-throwing-
blocking-defensive game?” shows you have a
grasp of the newsworthiness of what your
interviewee has done.

12. How do you ask tough questions? First, you
need to know what you are talking about.
People can sense when you don’t.
Second, be professional, show you are basing
your question on research, not your personal
pursuit, and ask every question, tough or easy,
with respect.

13. We all ask questions every day because we
need to know something…that’s what an
interview is: a purposeful series of questions
that leads to understanding, insight, and
perspective on a given topic.
Good interviewers are simply themselves.
They’re not acting. They’re curious. They know
how to be quiet and listen.
The authentic ones…extract profound answers
instead of clichés, and…get past the surface and
into something that rarely gets explored.
Adapted from https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/03/08/dean-nelson-interviewing

14. Writing your story after the interview
Organize Your Research
What does your research show that
makes this person newsworthy?
Review Your Notes
Identify memorable comments from your
interviewee.

15. Get To The Focus of Your Story
Write the most important facts of the story.
Write your lede in an engaging way. Write
so your story flows from one part to the
other. Use direct quotes from your
interviewee of the most important
comments made and paraphrase for the
reader in your own words the other things
said or done by your interviewee.

16. Assignment for Monday, April 20, 2020
class
Read the handouts and watch the
video on PHOTOJOURNALISM that
will be on BlackBoard tomorrow.

17. Assignment for today
You will now ask one of the ten
questions you submitted in an actual
interview to the classmate assigned as
your partner for this exercise.
Then write a 250 word story about
your interviewee.
The deadline to submit your story
is Sunday April 19, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.