Best Practices
Before Interview
Determine your goals:
- Do you want to obtain specific information? If so, what?
- Even if you’re just interested in “learning more,” do your best to determine what you’d like to learn.
Conduct research:
- You may not know enough to even know what to ask.
- Research the subject’s specialty (for example, learn the rules of lacrosse before interviewing a lacrosse player, watch a game).
- Learn enough about the subject (or the subject’s expertise) to ask intelligent questions.
Confirm the interview:
- Give the subject a heads-up that you’ll be taking photos and/or video.
- Let the subject know what the topic of your interview is (no surprises!).
Compile a list of questions you’d like to ask:
- They can be highly specific (“What were you doing at noon on June 12, 2003?”) or general in nature (“Tell me about your work”), as required.
- Learn enough about the subject (or the subject’s expertise) to ask intelligent questions.
Ensure that your list includes the most basic questions:
- Is the interview on the record?
- Even if you know the subject’s name (and presumably you do), you should always ask and confirm the spelling; if appropriate, get the name of his or her organization and title.
Gather the tools of the trade:
- camera | notebook | business cards
- voice or video recorder (make sure it’s fully charged and tested; if you’re really cautious, you can bring a backup unit)
- pen or pencil (always carry a backup)
During Interview
First, regardless of the situation, state that you are a journalist (or the purpose of the interview).
Be sure to take notes even if you’re recording the interview.
- Indicate that you are planning to publish or broadcast material from the interview, even if you don’t know where or how it will be published.
- You should explain that it may be seen publicly, even if that’s only in a classroom setting.
Interview at the subject’s home or workplace.
- Take notes about what you see, feel, experience in their space.
Ask permission to record the interview and be sure to mute your phone:
- Especially if you’re using it as your recording device!
Small talk goes a long way at the beginning of any interview.
- Use your set-up time to get to know each other.
- If the subject offers you coffee/water/beet juice, accept graciously.
Ask open-ended questions:
- Better yet, give prompts. “Tell me about…”
Control the flow of the interview, ask your questions and keep things on track…
- But also let the flow go where it’s most interesting.
- Look for a natural pause to take a few photos after the subject is comfortable with you.
- If you uncover something juicy, don’t go back to your old list of questions.
- And… get what you came for. If an important question is sidestepped, ask again.
- Be polite and respectful, but also firm.
Take notes:
- ...but don’t allow notetaking to become distracting.
- If something is said you want to remember, jot down the time in the interview when it occurred — this will greatly speed finding and verifying the quote after the fact.
- If your source mentions the name of a person, organization or place, ask for confirmation of the spelling.
“Do not let anyone force you to agree to have quotations approved before they are used in your story; it is not good journalistic practice and does not serve your audience in an honest way. This has become an important ethical issue in contemporary American journalism.” From The Journalist’s Resource
After Interview
An excellent last question might be, “What’s something I should have asked you that I haven’t?”
Thank the interviewee for their time and ask if you can be in contact again if there are additional questions.
Ask for access to photos and any other documents or objects that have come up. It will be much harder to do this hours or days later.
Write as soon as possible while the interview is fresh in your mind.
When Calling China
From Workforce
Confirm day and time (and time zone) in writing.
It is courteous to inform your subject who will be on the call (if more than one interviewer).
If multiple interviewers, be careful that only one interviewer speaks at a time. Don’t overwhelm the subject with many voices.
Many Chinese adults have had formal English education since sixth grade and have a good command of reading, writing and the spoken word. (You may also have a good command of Chinese.) Be aware that speaking ability in a second language, however, falls off markedly when using voice only or even voice+video.
Small talk goes a long way at the beginning of any interview.
Make an effort to speak clearly, minimizing the use of contractions and slang. Avoid asking questions in the negative form. Asking, “Don’t you like basketball?” may leave the subject mystified. Instead, try “Do you like basketball?”
Summarize the key points covered and recount the subject’s answers to important questions. Ask if they feel the need to clarify any of their responses or add some important missed point.
When Operating In A Language
You Don’t Know
From Poynter.
Look for other speakers of a language you know well.
Seek “culture brokers” among young people.
Take your time. “The longer you’re with people, the more comfortable they’ll feel.”
4. Use all of your senses.
5. Hire a translator and/or develop a network of translators.
Ethnographic Interview
Questions
The interview questions below were adapted from J. P. Spradley’s work in The Ethnographic Interview.
You may wish to include some of the same or similar questions when conducting your interview to learn more about the experiences your subject had while living in China.
Grand Tour Questions
- Could you describe a typical day at work in China?
- Could you describe a typical day at your job?
- Could you describe a typical day with your family?
- What kinds of tasks or activities were difficult / rewarding / enjoyable for you?
- Could you draw me a map of your town / school / workplace / neighborhood and describe places of interest?
Daily Details
- Give me an example of a typical meal (breakfast / lunch / dinner / snack).
- Describe an important holiday or festival.
- Explain the transportation system/educational system/monetary system.
- Could you describe your weekly schedule / school calendar / work schedule?
- If you got sick or had an accident, what would you do?
- Who would you contact if you needed assistance (with the language, etc.)?
Experience Questions
- Could you tell me about some of your experiences?
- Could you tell me how you made friends with people in China/at school/at work?
- Could you describe a team or club activity that you enjoyed?
- Could you describe some places you visited in China?
- Could you describe some activities you did with your host family?
- Could you tell me about what you did on holidays/vacations?
- Could you tell me about what you did on weekends/in your free time?
- Could you describe one of your most interesting experiences?
- Could you describe one of your most challenging experiences and explain how you dealt with it?
Native Questions
- What does your mother call you?
- How do you refer to your family members?
- Could you tell me what you call your friends?
- Do you use nicknames?
- What are some idioms or expressions you use?
- Do people in China speak with an accent?
- Can you give some examples?
- When you meet someone for the first time in China, how do you greet him or her?
- What are some examples of other casual greetings?
- When you talked to someone at the language school/university/work, what did you call your teachers / classmates / co-workers / supervisor / boss?
- Did you use first or last names?
- Did you use titles/honorifics?