Interviewing for J412 War Coverage Paper I: Winter 2008

Last revised 1-8-08

Here are some ideas that might help your interview go more smoothly AND get you the information that you need for your paper.

1. Get ready. Plan on at least two hours for this interview: 30 minutes to get ready, an hour for the interview, and 30 minutes to review your notes and fill in any gaps after you’re done. Use a tape recorder or some other device to record the interview if you can. (E-mail interviews will have a transcript, of course.)

2. Define your purpose. It is important for you to understand the purpose of the interview before you contact your interviewee. It’s a good idea to actually write this down so that you can read it when you contact your interviewee. Smile when you read it!

Example: “My communications studies class is doing a research project to try to find out what ‘real’ people remember about war and where they got their information. So I don’t have a whole lot of prepared questions for you to answer—I just basically want to listen to the answer to this one:

Was there one event during the war (World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, other) that really made an impression on you when it happened? One that may have changed your outlook on the war? I’d love to hear all you can remember!”

3. Be ready to listen. This means you should plan on being very very patient. You are asking your interviewee to tell you a story, and that story may meander a bit. Don’t talk unless you have to! But ….

There are some war events that will be too big: If your interviewee selects the entire Vietnam War, for example, ask a few more questions to help narrow it to a specific event or a specific time period (the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Tet offensive, or the My Lai Massacre, or the killings at Kent State). That will help you to locate media coverage in the second part of the assignment.

4. When your subject has told his or her story, then start to get more details on the source of information. Where was your subject when this war event occurred? What was she or he doing? Listening to the radio? Watching TV? Readingt a newspaper? An actual participant in the event?

Whether your subject was a participant or not, ask what he or she remembers about radio, newspaper and television coverage of that war event. Remember, you’re not looking for opinions about war media coverage (everyone’s got an opinion), you’re trying to track down actual evidence. Try to pin down the dates. You might find they don’t remember the news coverage at all—or that they remember exactly where they were and even what they were doing. Ask about the news coverage in the weeks and months after the event, too.

The key to successful interviewing is genuine interest. We’re not trying to test people on what they know or don't know, we’re trying to find out about different kinds of war memories and how they were reflected or not in the media coverage at that time. There are no “right” answers, and your research will be the most fun if you allow it to take you places you never thought you would go!

 5. Don’t forget to ask for details for the interview summary sheet (shown below.) You may want to wait until late in the interview so you don’t break the continuity. Also, don’t forget the last – and often best – question in any interview – is there anything else you want to tell me that I haven’t mentioned? Then, if you’re interviewing in person, wait a while for that final answer. Don’t just jump up and leave until they’ve stopped talking.

Required interview summary information to be turned in with the paper, along with the transcript. A separate form will be handed out in class.

INTERVIEW SUMMARY SHEET (to be attached to your paper)

SECTION A:

Name of interviewee:

Year of birth:

Ocupation (now or before retirement):

Telephone number:

E-mail address:

Date and time of interview:__in person __by phone__by e-mail

How do you know the interviewee?

Description of the war event:

Year of the event:

Year that you were born:

SECTION B:

1. If you conducted an e-mail interview, print out a complete transcript and attach it to this sheet.

OR

2. If you conducted your interview in person or by telephone, summarize and paraphrase as much as you can remember of your questions and the interviewee’s answers.