Annals of Journalism 3: the telephone interview

W.V. Noble was a freelance journalist who offered his guide to Interviewing in a book published in 1934. Noble covers such tricky subjects as breaking the news of a bereavement while gathering information for an obituary. Below are his thoughts on interviewing over the phone (probably never practiced by comedy scriptwriters Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goodwin, above). 

It is not as easy to hold someone's attention for any length of time on the telephone as it is when one is drinking coffee with the person or smoking his cigarettes. Few of the little tricks which coax answers to questions, the beatings about the bush for the purpose of gleaning information, can be employed on the telephone. Nor is it easy to establish that necessary friendliness between oneself and the person to be interviewed: the telephone is rather a soulless link.

Knowing the Name

Names are most important in telephone interviews. They help establish contact and bring a little personality into the conversation. They enable you to greet your man before talking business to him, thus encouraging him to be cheerful. Any fumbling apology such as, 'Who am I speaking to? Will you please tell me your name, sir?' is quite likely to ruin any possibility of a satisfactory interview. 

Concentrating on the Voice

By inflexion and variation of tones the voice has to create for the person at the other end of the wire a mental picture of the interviewer, and so much can depend on that picture. An involuntary note of doubt may arise in your voice because of something that has been said, but that can be glossed over in a visual interview. Many unfortunate slips may arise over lack of control over the voice. 

The Fatal 'Yes'

One example of a slip of this kind springs to mind. It concerns an interview which a reporter once had with a girl who had been elected Rose Queen out of a large number of entrants. The reporter was asked to interview the girl on the telephone because she lived a considerable distance away. 

In his opening remarks, the reporter asked what were the qualifications of a Rose Queen and how it was that this particular girl had been chosen. The girl replied that the girl who was best looking and who had the most charming personality was always elected Rose Queen, adding that she had been found to have those qualifications. 

The reporter replied "Yes." The word itself meant nothing, but there was a wealth of meaning in the way he said it. The girl had spoken vaingloriously about herself, and in a careless moment the reporter had allowed his "Yes" to mean, 'That's what you think. They all say that. I don't believe you're such a beauty, anyway.'

The girl was naturally offended. She answered the rest of his questions in snappy monosyllables, giving him no lead and not the slightest help in his interview. 

That day an opposition paper came out with an interview with the same girl. They had found that she had entered the Rose Queen competition in the face of great handicaps. She had not long been out of hospital, and a fortnight before her mother had died. On her death-bed her mother had pleaded that she should not forgo any pleasures because of the bereavement, and that she should still try to be Rose Queen as she had planned. 

The opposition paper, therefore, came out with a really good story, while the reporter on the other paper had probably lost his chance just because of the sarcastic note which had crept into his reply of "Yes."

:: More like this to be found on Annals of Journalism 2