I do it. I admit it. But it’s usually a last resort, or for something that needs quick turnaround. I’m talking about email interviews.
When I have ample time, especially when it comes to magazine features and news stories, it’s hands down just better to interview someone in person–or at the very least, over the phone. There is so much that gets lost otherwise.
About 10 years ago, before social media was king and finding sources on Twitter was not yet possible, I wrote an article about my aversion to email interviews for a now-defunct site called AbsoluteWrite–after a quick search for my name plus the title (which I thought was clever!) revealed that the article is still out there, albeit on a poorly formatted archive site. At the time of this writing, I was a contributing writer to two Wilkes-Barre-based publications. And at the time, I gave email interviews a shot, and quickly learned that this method is a lazy short cut.
I shared the full version of this old article below; I should probably update this or rewrite a new post on this topic, but I wanted to show that I felt this way back in 2004-2005–and still feel the same. And not much as really changed with my reasoning…
Why is this coming up now?
I’ve received quite a few requests for email interviews lately –not even asking first to talk in person or over the phone. More concerning to me is that these are from fledgling student reporters. The folks from my high school and college newspaper staff, and my award-winning, former advisor and now Andrea Frantz would be disappointed.
I don’t want good reporting to die. Please learn from what I share below in my decade-old article.
(P.S. After this original article appeared, I received a nice note from a hearing-impaired woman said email interviews gave her the opportunity to interview people, so there are some circumstances where they are suitable. Also,Please pardon any typos, etc. This was written a long time ago–I think about 2004–before social media exploded!)
*********Why I Deleted E-mail Interviews
by Donna Talarico
John Butler and Stoddartsville, Pa. featured in the Times Leader. Fascinating story that would have lacked so much detail had I used an email interview.
As a member of a younger generation of writers, I rely heavily on the technology I have grown up with. E-mail interviews were a snap, and a way to make my life easier. That was what I had grown to believe.
Until I met John Butler– a man who single-handedly preserved the ruins of a town begun by his ancestor. Had I interviewed him via e-mail, or even by phone, I would not have gotten the same feeling. And, scouring the web for hours gave me nothing close to what ten minutes at my county’s historical society did. Is technology robbing us of the success rooted in traditional research methods? Is it robbing us of contact with people?
Today, I was awakened. Today, I felt like a true journalist. And, from this day on, I will not take the lazy way out. My end product will show that. I did a lot of thinking today about opportunities I missed by letting subjects think that an e-mail interview was saving them time, when in reality it made my job of finding perfect quotes as easy as cutting and pasting.
Technology has stolen my reporter’s notebook, and with it, my personality.
I feel that I’m starting to succumb to taking shortcuts presented by this paperless society. Technology has stolen my reporter’s notebook, and with it, my personality. I find myself becoming more quiet, preferring to correspond with written words. I find my handwriting sloppy all of a sudden.
Today, while I discovered family roots dating back to the days of George Washington, of a planned town that never really happened, I found what was so special about a one-on-one interview. With that, I decided to get back down to my own roots, and remember what a reporter used to do. Perhaps you forgot, too.
Tone
How often do receive e-mails from people and are unaware of their tone? Was he trying to be funny? Was he being sarcastic? Unless one is using emoticons, chances are that you never know. When you interview through e-mail, you cannot attribute the tone of voice someone uses to any quotes when he answers a question. When you talk face-to-face, you can see an emotional response to a question. Is his voice quivering when you ask him a hard question? If he is sarcastic, you can hear it. If he is joking, you can hear it. You can wrap up quotes by saying, “he said quietly.” Or, you can begin the article by describing his voice– was he made to be a radio announcer? You can hear if he is modest about something, as he may shy away from the question– whereas if you e-mail, he may have spent hours trying to figure out what to say. With Mr. Butler, he sounded like an old professor, eager to share his family history with me.
Candidness
In an e-mail interview, subjects have time to form their answers and play with their words. Just as you edit your draft of an article, they can edit what they say and even have someone read over their quotes before they send them back to you. That is stealing away the candid responses you can get from asking a question on the spot. It’s neat to see how people react to questions. Many times, you may enjoy getting a quick and witty response. Other times, you may have to wait for someone to answer. But, if they are struggling to find answers, depending on the type of interview it is, this could even help your story. Maybe they are hiding pain about a lost loved one, and can’t find the words. Or, maybe you are doing an investigative piece– stalling on a question may mean something bigger!
Personality and Looks
True– you can get a hint of someone’s personality through reading what he wrote. But in a set of interview questions, there is not much you can gain in the way of telling a subject’s personality. Does he laugh a lot? Does he smile a lot? Is he animated? Aside from his personality, how does he look? What is he wearing? Is he wearing a favorite hat? Maybe there is a story in that! These are all wonderful things you can describe in an article. In my article about Mr. Butler, I painted him as a wise old man who smiled often, showing years of laugh lines. In addition, Mr. Butler did cough and clear his throat many times– he has asthma. He’s also 86 and very frail, so I was able to bring that in, which lent itself very well to the whole story of him preserving a legacy– but also that he was ready to take his own spot in history.
Setting
Pay attention to your surroundings. Many great interview pieces start off describing where the interview was held. In the case of Mr. Butler, his house was a museum full of artifacts from the 1800’s. He gave me a tour of his home, and pointed out every picture. That is something I never would have gotten from an e-mail. Also, the walls were adorned with stuffed game. From that, I was able to ask him if he was a hunter, and I got stories about when he was stationed in Alaska during his time in the Navy. That’s where he got a few of his bears. So, are you interviewing someone in his favorite restaurant? Why is it his favorite– did he propose there? Did he work there as a kid? Ask about the things you see. Write about them. Readers will get a peek into his life.
Who else is around? Did your subject’s wife come into the room with iced tea and cookies and give him a kiss? Did your subject’s baby start to cry, and you saw the motherly side of a stern business woman? These are all things that we take for granted that can add to a story. Mr. Butler’s only companion was a cocker spaniel named Jenny– a lovable dog. The warmth of her owner certainly rubbed off. This worked its way into my article. No longer was Mr. Butler a lonely old man– he had a loyal friend by his side.
Smiles, Warmth, and Laughter
These three were mentioned above, but I just wanted to reiterate that these are vital to your story. They can add so much to your words.
Oral Histories
This is something that you may or may not be familiar with. In a college research methods class at Wilkes University, I learned about oral histories. They are incredibly valuable to preserving a person’s place or time in history. For the class, I had to interview a husband and wife who both had businesses that began in the early days of the Wyoming Valley– the area in northeast Pennsylvania where Wilkes University is. When I was done recording, I had to transcribe everything– and I mean everything. Every “um,” “uh,” “like,” etc. I had to record pauses, laughter, phones ringing, clocks chiming, pagers going off, people entering the office, etc. What this did was preserve the subjects’ oral history as they told it, on the day they told it. And oral history could differ from day to day, actually. Say the subject was in a bad mood– he may not open up as much. Or, if he is in a really talkative mood, he obviously tells more. But it’s not just about what happened in the past, it’ s about the way the subject tells it.
This project was great fun, and so when I interviewed Mr. Butler, I decided to transcribe the entire interview to donate to the local historical society. Since I am on the tape too, you can hear my excitement and eagerness for him to talk more. You can hear me asking about the bear on the wall, and oohing and ahhing as he pulled out artifacts. You can hear me talking to Jenny. You can hear him laugh when I tell Jenny, “No, not on a first date,” after she playfully licks my face. You can hear the concern in his voice as he says how worried he is that he is going to die and he’s not sure if the small museum he built will ever be opened. You can hear the hope in his voice that his daughter will move back to Pennsylvania.
These are the things that will never be experienced through an e-mail interview. But, these are the things that people can listen to or at least read a transcript of for years to come.
And, when the article hits the local paper, people will get a real sense of Mr. Butler. I don’t think my article would have been the same, had I not met this man. This makes me think back to all the shortcuts I took the past year. Shame on me. My stories could have been ten times better.
Take a moment to take in what I wrote here. Then, open your e-mail program and write that person you just sent interview questions to and instead, ask to meet in person somewhere. I know that we cannot meet someone for an interview in all cases. Sometimes we need to speak to someone across the miles. But, if at all possible, get the most out of your interview and meet in person. You can send them a thank-you through e-mail instead!
*********
OK. Back to 2013. I feel like I could have wrote those exact words TODAY.