Broadcaster/writer/producer/musician Jian Ghomeshi was at Ryerson University a few nights ago. I managed to be there early but not early enough to grab dinner so I had to settle for a bag of chips. It was an all ages crowd from 18 to 70. Surprisingly Jian is rocking it with the teens and the septuagenarians as well.
He gave a lot of advice for the young budding journalists on how to improve their skills. I was taking notes feverishly, like I always do, but a digital recorder would have come in real handy for some of the better quotes. I wish I could remember the shorthand I had learned in high school.
All in all, there were eager students asking clever questions. The best question of the night went to the young lady who was more or less asking Jian how to complete her class assignment. The assignment was finding a way to get the interviewee to provide anecdotes during the interview. Generally that is a really hard one. What’s harder still is trying to get someone to describe a place that is half way across the country that you have never seen before and have no way of ever seeing. An instructor I had for a magazine writing course said you should ask the person being interviewed to describe the situation, the room the colors, the smell and the sounds for scene writing purposes. They will conjure up an image so vivid that it will bring the story to life.
Some tips offered:
1)Have conversations as opposed to reading off from your list of questions.
2)Do lots of research before hand.
3)Observe the body language of those you are interviewing.
4)Make the interviewee feel as comfortable as possible.
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