Reporter Interview Questions And Answers

We are increasingly telling our stories across platforms -- on the Web and on tablets and other digital devices. It’s important for the reporter to develop a sharp sense of what kinds of storytelling work well on different platforms. In addition to producing the traditional story, could we create short videos of the people in the story for an online package? Are there any ways of telling the story through an interactive graphic that would work on the iPad?

As much as I hate to admit it, many, if not most, of the stories that journalists produce are written in a predictable way. Asking about “surprise” can help the writer shed his or her journalistic mantle, at least for a moment, and just react to the story’s events as a human being. Who were the quirky personalities you met? What was a jarring quote you heard? What did you not see coming? What interesting details and anecdotes do you have in your notebook that you left out of the story, and how do we get one or two of them back in?

I’m unfailingly courteous. You show people respect and they’ll give you the goddamned world. We’re walking into their lives, very often on the worst day of their lives. They don’t owe us anything. One thing I say is “I’m terribly sorry to bother you. I know this is a difficult time. I wonder if you might say a few kind words about…” and then I turn it into a conversation. I don’t just question them. I open with an apology and I engage in a conversation.

This might seem like an old Catholic-school boy, but I also show up with a shirt and tie. Basically, they don’t know me from jack, and I’m going into their homes, their places of worship, their hospital rooms. A shirt and a tie convey respect. It’s very basic stuff. It also conveys authority: I’m someone you should talk to. I mean, it’s not something I grew up doing. Hell, I was a rock critic for a number of years with a ripped t-shirt and a leather jacket. But this is a remarkably different game.

Usually anywhere from one to three stories per day. I try to do one story at a time if possible.

At the same time, I love these people. These are my people. I walk into these housing projects, cause as I child I lived in the housing projects. I know the fields in which I labor. I’m from the old neighborhood, and I know these people’s situations. And I’m always moved by their generosity. You find decency in the most staggeringly bad places.

The op-ed page is the page directly opposite the page that contains that particular newspaper's editorials. It is a forum for views from people, columnists from other papers, readers, and letters to the editor, etc.

No, it is not necessary. There are some different skills required to be a successful editor than to be a successful writer. Of course, there is some overlap. However, many people have fine editing skills that are not necessary great writers. Most entry-level position at magazines is as editorial assistants or assistant editors. Magazines use mostly freelance writers and few of them have full-time writers. Editors in chief need good supervisory and management skills as well.

Australia has always been a democracy and it has always had a free press. The two go hand in hand -- you cannot have a democracy without a free press and you cannot have a free press without democracy.

Are you looking at specific events in Australia's history, with regard to how these events were reported in the Australian press? If so, you will have to be more specific.

Among the problems I encountered was finding, gaining access to, & then protecting the identity of sources for inside info. Then you still have to get some type of confirmation the info you have obtained is accurate & verifiable.

Many source documents needed for corroboration are difficult or impossible to gain access to as they are protected by security classification or have been destroyed.

The press played a tremendous part in leading the charge toward America's involvement in Cuba. Two publishers, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, stood out among these opportunists. They perceived the conflict with Spain as their chance to increase circulation of their newspapers. Seizing upon the opportunity to capitalize on the growing spirit of American patriotism, Hearst and Pulitzer printed sensational anti-Spanish stories.

Graphic illustrations commissioned from some of the country's most-talented artists and stories written by premiere authors and journalists of the day were fodder for fueling the flames of war. Together, Hearst and Pulitzer created frenzy among the American people by reporting the alleged brutality of the Spanish toward the Cuban rebels. (However, acts of outrage committed by the Cubans were seldom mentioned.) By the time the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, the pro-war press had roused national sentiment to the point that President McKinley feared his political party would suffer if he did not engage in war with Spain.

Electronic journalism uses electronic stuff (read computers).Print journalism uses ink (read newspapers).

When working with other people things do not always run smoothly. They may ask you what kinds of difficulties you have had with others and how you have overcome them.

You should be willing to discuss this frankly, because there are bound to be times when you will face these situations in the future. As a trainee journalist on a local newspaper, for example, you may be required to get stories from people or organizations who do not wish to co-operate. Your persistence, tact and resilience could all be examined in this situation and are all features which can be expressed when discussing this issue at interview.

Examples of problems you have coped with might include:

☛ * Sorting out accommodation
☛ * Divorce: your own or your parents'
☛ * Financial difficulty
☛ * A sudden change in circumstances
☛ * Having to deliver bad news

Working as part of a team is common in many media jobs. It is important that you can get on and work quickly and efficiently with the other technical and creative production team staff. Time very literally is money in media production so there is no room for staff difficulties or temperament. When there are tough deadlines or late nights everyone must pull together to complete the task at hand. An employer will want to know that you can meet these demands and that you can establish a working relationship very quickly with people who you may be meeting for the first time.

You also need good written and oral communication skills and must have a crisp concise writing style - writing essays is not good evidence for this! They will expect you to have a good knowledge of current affairs and an inquisitive nature, and to be flexible - especially with regard to working hours. Many demands can be made on your time, so how experienced are you in putting in extra hours?

I always ask this when a reporter approaches me with an idea. I want to know whether she is genuinely interested in the idea and whether her curiosity will drive her to seek the answers she needs to tell the story. I want to know what aspect of the story first caught her attention. If she ever gets lost in the weeds during the reporting, I can remind her about the initial moment of intrigue. Finally, I want to understand how the writer thinks. What topics are of natural interest to her? Where is she getting her ideas from? What is she reading?

Boiling the premise down to five or six words can help the writer sharpen the story’s focus. In my newsroom, we’re asking reporters and line editors to write early Web headlines and short summaries on top of their stories. This is largely for production reasons, but the added benefit is that we’re encouraging writers and editors to get at the heart of the story earlier in the process.

We’re still old school here: we listen to police scanners. But there’s also BNN, the Breaking News Network beeper, which is now going onto iPhones. Basically they’re a service we subscribe to. They listen to walls of scanners and type in stuff. But you know what, it’s not very good. Very often they’re first, but we call it “Buff Beeper Bullshit” because it’s not that accurate. They let us know that something’s maybe up.

Oh yeah. Death threats and all that. But I respond to everyone who writes or calls me, because that’s the test of legitimacy: facing your critics. Often people’s qualms aren’t about how accurate the piece is; the qualms are about how bad the situation is. They’re like, “You fucked us. You fucked us.” No. Tell me what’s wrong with the story. Is Eddie a coke dealer with a prior murder conviction? Yeah, he is. Well, then what’s wrong with the story? Nothing’s wrong with the story except that it made Eddie look like the murdering drug dealer he is.

I loathe it. But if that’s the big story, I’m in. Frankly, with all due respect, I didn’t even know who Sarah Jessica Parker was.

Volume generally refers to the year published, so Column 63 would mean it was the 63rd year a magazine was published. Issue 6 would be the sixth of the year, if it was monthly it would be June bimonthly, December.

You can call your local newspaper and tell whoever answers the telephone that you have information they might be interested in as news.

In the newspapers I worked for, your call would likely be transferred to the City Room, and would be answered on the City Desk by a clerk. The clerk would ask you questions to determine what you had, and what its news value was. Be prepared to answer specific questions about the facts of the story.

That would be William Randolph Hearst with his introduction of Yellow journalism that helped contribute to America and the war with Spain.

Here they may be looking at what papers you read and whether you know the differences between the major broadsheets. A common question for TV journalism is about the difference between BBC and ITN news coverage. Also, don't forget the Internet - this is now a major source of news and current affairs.

Before your interview try to make sure that you keep an eye on all the major news media and the different ways they cover the news - what type of stories do they priorities, do they have a political affiliation, who is their target audience, is there a particular style?

Consider the more popular forms of news availability in particular. How detailed are they in their coverage?

Be prepared for supplementary questions relating to any of the following:

☛ * Who covers the news most accurately?
☛ * Who covers the news most superficially
☛ * What are people normally doing when they "get" the news?* Which news story has been of particular interest to you lately?

Since this is still the ideas phase, I’m not expecting the reporter to know what the story is going to say. I hope that he has a hypothesis that he’s going to test through his reporting. That’s why I’d like to know at least three or four questions that the reporter wants to ask, plus two or three sources he’ll consult. I’d also like to know whether there’s a central question that the reporter is trying to answer in the story. The central question can help us focus the story after he’s done most of his reporting.

Very often it’s absolute chaos. But, you know, I’ve been doing this for a while, and I read scenes to figure out what’s happening when the world’s gone mad. I realize, okay, these detectives are the actual case detectives and those detectives aren’t. Okay, that’s family. Okay, the shots had to have come from over there. You figure out what happened just by looking at the lay of the land and everybody involved.

I see the pack of reporters, and I don’t follow the pack. I try to go off in a different direction. I keep an eye on them — I understand that playing defense is a part of every game — but I don’t just hang around waiting for the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI), the press liaison on crime scenes, to give me handouts. Basically, what they give is cop version.

I have lost count of the times I’ve done that. I know a lot of reporters who won’t do it, and I understand and respect that call. But one, someone’s got to tell them, and two, I do it with as much grace and empathy as I can summon. Frankly, I need their story. I do my damnedest to do justice to the family and to their lost one.