Interviews are a delicate dance between two parties that are trying to wrest control from the other. When the interview involves someone that has been the victim of a traumatic event, compassion must take over as the motivating factor. The key to exercising compassion is to put yourself into the skin of the other person and try to walk around for a moment. When a person sees their life is in a period of upheaval, it takes a delicate balance of compassion and understanding for an interviewer to gain the requisite trust factor.
Compassion and a sympathetic ear are the cornerstones of a professional journalist. When dealing with traumatic events, interviewing techniques need to be tweaked from the norm, in order to fit into the situation. The victim needs to be considered first and foremost, and they are far more important than the story itself. Sometimes a journalist must let the person being interviewed dictate the pace of the story.
Before interviewing a victim of a traumatic event, you must first turn the tables, and walk a mile in their shoes. If you were flush in the middle of a major event, would you want a microphone thrust into your face and to be asked inane, mindless questions to be aired on the evening news? Of course not, so therefore we should consider the victim prior to questioning. People should always come first, even in the event of a major news story that the general public is dying to hear about.
By putting the victim first, a journalist is better able to focus on what is really important, and that is securing the story, but telling it in a manner that the victim would want it told. A great deal of understanding goes into retelling a story of a major traumatic event.
During an interview, in order to be compassionate, non-verbal communication and body language play a pivotal role. A victim of trauma will be anxious and jumpy, and therefore, the interviewer should be relaxed, calm, non-invasive, and approachable.
Traumas fill the nightly newscasts and the morning headlines. They are as perennial as the seasons. These stories need to be told, but an intricate amount of tact and compassion must accompany their creation. Journalists tread fine lines at times, and while amassing their research they are bound to encounter difficult interviews. A journalist is forced to master the art of compassionately interviewing victims of traumatic events.
When a journalist arrives on the scene of a brutal murder, a horrific car crash, or the victim of domestic abuse, the story is usually told through the eyes of victims or their immediate family members. These are the situations in which a journalist has to muster up the requisite moxie to interview, and to do so in a humane and compassionate manner.
Journalists cover stories, and they do so with an unbiased eye, and a dogged pursuit of the truth, leaving no stone unturned in their research. They have to get the story, no matter how heinous or tragic, but they must contemplate at what cost. To interview a victim of a traumatic event, or the family of a victim, the journalist must heed close watch to the manner in which they question. Every story comes with a price, and the journalist must carefully determine the cost of their line of questioning.
A grizzled veteran will know how to handle trauma victims, and will interview them with tender gloves. The grief of the individual must be acknowledged, and the questions posed must fit into the category of immediate relevancy. The interview should be well thought out, and permission should be granted before any queries are made. A victim of a traumatic event may not be comfortable enough to answer certain questions, and that desperately should be respected.
The boundaries should be in place prior to the beginning of the interview, after a certain amount of rapport has been established, and the interviewee is credible and lucid. The number of questions should be agreed upon, and there should be a line that is not crossed in regards to respecting the victims and their rights.
The onus on a journalist when interviewing victims of traumatic events is in the research gathering process.A compassionate and humane demeanour is necessary, and the journalist should be forthright in their integrity. The interview should keep on an even keel, perhaps even lingering towards sombre. A wise journalist will keep the interview brief, and will allow emotions to fill in the blank spaces.
A journalist must at no times overstep any boundaries when interviewing trauma victims, and there should always be a tremendous level of respect shown towards the victims and their families. Having compassion is far more important than having a story. Questions should be fact based, and not open ended opinion questions. If the questions are too personal, the responses will tend to vary, as emotion will play an active role.
Compassionately interviewing victims of traumatic events is never easy, and each time it will be completely different, because the situations will be so diverse. One cannot become comfortable in their interviewing techniques, because they need to be honed specifically to each situation.