How to Conduct a Good Interview in Investigative Journalism

Overview

Scared, traumatized, suspicious or people who just hate journalists? Does encouraging your contributors to talk seem impossible? It's not. Most people want to talk to you, but you need to build trust first. Find the interviewee's fears and forge a trusting relationship to tell their story. Learn through authentic cases and get practical tips to achieve what seems impossible.

To illustrate this topic, Åsa Erlandsson, a journalist and author from Sweden, will share her experience as she was investigating the school attack in Trollhättan on 22 October 2015. To write her book “It should never have happened: The school attack in Trollhättan”, she conducted 80 interviews. These were often difficult conversations that brought up memories and images that interviewees preferred to forget.

In this free Online Learning Session, Åsa will share tips on how to gain trust in each individual case, how to reach out to the people who do not want to speak and the importance of time to give people the opportunity to think about their decisions.

 In 2017 Åsa was awarded the Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism in the category of "The Narrator of the Year" for this book.

Skills

Editorial: Building interesting stories based on high profile interviews.
Storytelling: Using interviews to build stories that seize the interest of the audience.