1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

50 Journalism Online
The text-based interview – this is getting information and
quotes for reproduction in text form, previously newspapers
and magazines but now also web sites. The information can
extend to descriptions of the interviewees and the interview
process itself (e.g. location).
The broadcast interview – here the actual interview will be
offered to the audience in an edited form. So performance and
technical quality are considerations as well as information
gathering. Increased use of multimedia will make the broadcast
interview a valuable element of online storytelling.
Interviewing is a pivotal activity within journalism. Get it wrong
and the mistake will run like a fault line through the rest of your
news gathering and be evident in the final story. Stories often
suffer because the journalist has gathered too little information,
too much information, inaccurate information, the wrong impression
or the least newsworthy angle. The root of many of these
problems can be traced to poor interview technique.
Why then do many aspiring journalists give both the interview
process and their own technique so little thought? Possibly
because, compared to recording, editing or page design, for
example, talking to someone can seem the most natural thing in
the world to do.
Journalists who are accomplished interviewers can make it
seem like the most natural thing in the world. But that impression
belies the hours of preparation they may have undertaken as well
as their radar-like listening skills and quickness of thought,
acquired through years of experience – all lurking beneath that
laid-back exterior.
The importance of preparation
One of the keys to conducting effective interviews is to prepare
thoroughly. There are very few occasions when you cannot
prepare for an interview. Even if you ‘door step’ a politician as he
or she leaves a meeting, you can prepare beforehand by finding
out about the politician, the nature of the meeting and the main
political issue of the day. This preparation can take two forms – the
specific and the general. The ‘specific’ is the research focused