Why I Deleted E-mail Interviews
By Donna Talarico
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 began 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.
I feel that I started to succumb to taking short cuts 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
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, 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 short cuts 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!
Donna Talarico has a background in a variety of media, but most recently
served as an admissions representative for a career school, where she found
inspiration in her students to write her first book, Kids, Have You seen My
Backpack? and Other Inspirational Stories of Non-Traditional Students: An Adult
Learner Anthology, now available through
iUniverse. She is also the author
of Dream Jobs to Go: How to Become a Professional Mascot, an e-book from
an
Intellectua.com series. Other publishing credits include Games Magazine,
Oatmeal Studios Greeting Cards and various websites and e-zines. She is
contributing writer to a weekly entertainment newspaper, contributing editor to
a
InterlinkCity.com, works behind the scenes on several shows produced by her
local PBS affiliate, and previously worked in the country music industry as a
radio promotions director. In the summer of 2004, she appeared on the private
investigator episode of TLC's reality show "Help Wanted." Currently she is a
full-time freelance writer working toward her bachelor's degrees in
communication studies and sociology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania (inspired by her own book!). She lives in the Pocono Mountains with
her boyfriend Dave and cat Spectra.
