Thursday, March 01, 2007

Tell Me 

Yesterday I interviewed representatives from Surf Life Saving WA (which is hosting the Australian National Surf Life Saving Championships this month), the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway for Consumer Voice, Blind Citizens WA's audio magazine.

We record Consumer Voice at Curtin FM and this was my first go. Although I took a few radio units at uni, I haven't talked into a microphone (or attempted to place headphones over my curly hair) in a very long time. I thought this would be a good opportunity to refresh. I love chatting to people but I so wish I could sound natural. Will working on it help? Aaggh!

Although I expected to learn more about interviewing, I actually learnt more about how to be interviewed. Two of my interviewees, both professional, gave informative answers that happened to lead into my other questions. Both gave facts that surprised me.

I could have done a better job with my remaining interviewee - I can think of one more question that might have lead somewhere - but perhaps some people have a story to tell and others either don't have one, or aren't motivated to tell it.

I think I'd have a hard time believing that listeners would be interested in my stories. I guess you have to trust that if they've asked, then they'd like to hear what you have to say.

Comments:
My thought when interviewing anyone is that I want to have an interesting conversation with someone else. A lot of people like listening in on other people chatting so I treat interviews as a chance to have the kind of chat that I wouldn't mind overhearing.
 
Hey Rodney,

Thanks for your feedback - I think if I'd left the questions for the interview with the less-forthcoming person, and concentrated more on having a chat, I might have had more luck. Having a conversation, rather than 'interviewing' would definitely help me to feel and sound more natural too. :-)
 
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