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Depending on where you are carrying out the project, the reporters may tell you they have no idea how to find people to interview. They may be used to writing stories based on official handouts. Yet even if they don't realize it, the reporters have many contacts that can be tapped. Talk about the importance of finding spokespeople on all sides who can comment and give context to stories. Obtaining comment from spokespeople on all sides helps balance the story by including a vari-ety of (often conflicting) voices that allow the reader to make up his or her own mind. In addition, reporters should establish contact with experts who have studied both sides of an issue and can provide a more objective analy-sis. Experts who are one step removed from the situation can often as-sess events and issues in a more dispassionate way than those directly involved. They offer the added benefit of being authorities with years of research or involvement on the topic, which adds credibility to their comments. Reporters can also use experts to shade in the background and history of an issue, giving the reader context in which to under-stand the present-day events. In preparing stories, reporters should contact government spokespeo-ple as well as conduct "man-on-the-street" interviews that can illus-trate in narrow focus how a new law or phenomenon is affecting aver-age citizens. Other sources include religious authorities, business lead-ers and union representatives, doctors and health care professionals, nonprofit agencies, artists, and members of subcultures. (For a thor-ough discussion of this topic, see Television/Radio News & Minorities by Donald R. Browne, Charles M. Firestone, and Ellen Mickiewicz, pub-lished in 1994 by the Aspen Institute and the Carter Center of Emory University.) Have the reporters draw up a list of their sources, share it with colleagues, and keep adding to it as the project moves forward. Connect this list to the concept of a Multicultural Rolodex, a term coined by News Watch, a publication of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University, that is being adopted in many American newsrooms. Instead of relying solely on dominant-culture, male "sources," the Multicultural Rolodex calls for reporters to find men and women of other religions and ethnic groups in business, politics, academia, and civic life who can provide authoritative opinions on a variety of subjects. Once the project is over, give copies of the expanded source list to each reporter to use once they return to their newsrooms.
The reporters on your team will come from a variety of backgrounds and some may be more experienced or schooled in basic journalism techniques than others. Therefore, without condescending to anyone, don't take anything for granted. The coordinator's job is to coach the team through these weeks of collaborative reporting, and that involves hands-on discussions about the interview process. Here are some ideas for how the team can proceed. 1. Draw Up a List of Interviews. The reporters should meet as a team to discuss and draw up a list of sources for each story. This allows each participant to suggest contacts from his or her background and will ultimately lead to richer, more rounded stories. Make sure that each reporter participates in this process so that no one can object later that the stories are one-sided. 2. Prepare the questions. Compile a list of questions to ask. Encourage the reporters to plot the story structure ahead of time and to visualize the information they need to obtain from the interview. Suggest your own questions if necessary. Discuss how to pose follow-up questions, using role-playing to coach reporters through the process. 3. Hit the Five W's. Depending on the experience of your team, you may want to review those old journalism chestnuts: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Talk about how to answer those questions in a story. If this is too simplistic for the team, try the alternate Five W's espoused
by Art Charity, author of Doing Public Journalism. He suggests that re-porters
frame the interview in terms of community concerns and ask: What is the
problem? Who does it affect? How and where does it affect them? When and
why did it arise? Why won't it go away? This line of attack helps reporters
frame questions that address the larger issues underlying a story and probe
for answers as they write the stories.
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