Interviewing: How to be professional in a casual world
August 6th, 2008
There you are with your list of questions – carefully worded, sometimes sinister, but always clever – now clenched in your clammy fist as you sit down for your first professional reporting interview. You smile, and the subject smiles. You both sip coffee. You adjust your blank sheets of paper on your knee. As you attempt to write a date, then pen jabs through five sheets and puts indelible ink on your new pants. Staying cool, you unfold your list of questions, and you read the first one: Could you tell me how much money you make? Oh, dear, you poor, pathetic rookie. You received your interview training from an idiot.
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Be aggressive, be casual, and be aggressive, too
August 6th, 2008
There you are standing in the middle of the street, a public street, with your newspaper camera, which you brought for another assignment. Three houses away a man is beating a boy with what looks like a baseball bat, chasing him here and there and hitting him when he can. The child is screaming and bloodied. You remember that your Mass Communication Law professor cautioned the class a journalist could violate this man’s privacy if you print a picture, and you should consult an attorney first who is savvy about media law. After all, the batter might sue you. That’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Take the damn picture! In fact, take several. Wear out the shutter taking pictures.
Urging you to become an aggressive reporter, Ron Roat offers four lessons about the news business.
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