drawn out interview would serve no useful purpose.

Be flexible. You would have come to the interview armed with a list of questions but we know that interviews can be very unpredictable. You may have to discard a question or line of questioning temporarily or all together. Try to find alternate ways of getting the information if it is deemed critical to your story.

Be a good listener. Any interview is a partnership so you must fight the urge to do all the talking. This includes maintaining eye contact and body language that would indicate to the subject that you are interested in what is being said. This doesn't mean that you can't interrupt or try to guide the interview in a different direction. Doing so, however, requires a certain level of skill which presumably journalists are equipped with.

Be sensitive. We have all witnessed those interviews by some noted journalists that quickly degenerate into a fiasco. If things aren't going so well for you, be prepared to choose a different strategy or ask to reschedule the interview at a later time. Yes, journalists by the very nature of their profession, are expected to be persistent. There is, however, a point to which this persistence can become counter productive especially when the subject is already suffering.

Faced with incredible pressures to make the news and report the news, journalists may not always be able to, or inclined to, make the extra effort to be polite, sensitive and empathetic. However, it is critical to a news media's image and credibility that every effort is made to accurately and professionally gather information and report it.

Learn more about this author, Joan Schroeder.
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