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Understanding Q&A Stories: Techniques and Tips for Effective Reporting

This comprehensive overview of Q&A stories outlines their definitions, various forms, advantages, and disadvantages. It provides valuable insights into selecting the right interviewee, crafting engaging questions, and conducting effective interviews. Readers will learn how to access sources, structure their interviews for optimal results, and enhance storytelling through direct dialogue. The course culminates in a follow-up exercise that encourages critical analysis of existing Q&A articles, pushing students to improve their own work.

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Understanding Q&A Stories: Techniques and Tips for Effective Reporting

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  1. Q & A Story Course: Comm460W Instructor: Yong Tang 02/22/2011

  2. What is Q & A Story? ● Definition ●Different forms of Q & A ●Sample Q & A Stories http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/30beliefs.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121008241549970651.html?mod=SmallBusinessMain_RelatedStories

  3. What is Q & A Story? http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2010/03/qa_with_world_vision_president.html http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-28/world/russia.moscow.explainer_1_kremlin-russian-tv-russian-president-dmitry-medvedev?_s=PM:WORLD http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200503/10/eng20050310_176350.html

  4. Advantages of Q & A Story ● Readers have better sense of having direct dialogue with interviewee ● Shed more light on interviewee’s personality and personal beliefs ● Better explain complicated issues ● Save reporters a lot of time and energy in writing ● More entertaining and informative if written well

  5. Disadvantages of Q & A ● Harder to condense thus occupies more space ● On-the-scene details are easily ignored ● Depends too heavily on interviewees to talk ● More challenging for novice reporters

  6. What Person and What Topic? ● Newsmaker ● Expert ● Cool Subject ● Put yourself in the shoes of readers ● Don’t forget the “elephant in the room”

  7. How Do You Obtain Access? ● Plan ahead and be persistent ● Develop your own sources ● Public relations professionals might help you ● Take advantage of press conferences and other opportunities ● Tell them that you represent a major media outlet with a large audience ● Show your professional portfolio and impress them

  8. What Questions You Raise? ●Research, research, research ● Make an exhaustive list of questions and also prepare some talking points ● Keep your questions short and easy to understand ● Most questions should be open-ended

  9. Interview Itself ● Consider in what settings you want to do the interview. in-person? on telephone? by email? one-on-one? group interview? ● Strive for the best: one-on-one and face-to-face ● Ask for an hour for the interview and settle for less ● Pick a place with minimal distractions

  10. Interview Itself ● Be respectful, not confrontational ● Look for something emotional and unusual ● Take two tape recorders with you ● See if there are multimedia opportunities ● Keep natural flavor and flow of the conversation when transcribing and editing

  11. Follow-Up Exercise ● Your out-of-class assignment is to select one of Q & A stories written by the instructor and critique the story ● Below is the link where you could find many Q & A stories: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/zhuanti/Zhuanti_475.html

  12. Follow-Up Exercise In your paper you should: ● Explain why you select one article, not another ● Identify the strengths of the story ● Identify the weaknesses of the story ● Tell me how you would like to improve the story

  13. Follow-Up Exercise ● Tell me if and how you would like to frame the questions differently if you were the reporter assigned to do the story ● Tell me if and why you would choose not to present the story in a Q & A format if you were the reporter assigned to do the story

  14. Follow-Up Exercise ● This paper should have five pages (double-spaced) ● This paper should be submitted electronically to ANGEL drop box by Midnight 02/28/2011 Enjoy your Q & A exercise!

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