ELAINE JIANG (on tape): Hi, I’m a summer journalism student at Northwestern University and I was wondering if I could interview you for my story.
Good interviews are foundational to good journalism. But they don’t always come easy… or at all. Listen to a few cherubs reflect on their experiences interviewing people around Evanston.
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CLAIRE CHEN: I’ve never had to go up to a person on the street and ask them for an interview, so I was really, really scared.
That’s cherub Claire Chen of Edina, Minnesota. Claire initially faced a lot of rejection with in-person interviews, only getting one yes after asking six people.
CLAIRE: I felt like I was doing something wrong when I was approaching people, so I was trying to figure out what everyone else was doing, but I think it was just maybe the people I asked.
Eventually, Claire changed locations to the Lakefill path and tried again.
CLAIRE: I realized that like during my first few interviews or like trying to interview people, I made up excuses for why not to approach people, like I was like, ‘oh they’re wearing their AirPods, oh they’re walking their dog, oh they’re holding bags,’ like I shouldn’t approach them. But like on the second day I was like I didn’t care anymore, because a lot of people were like ‘Yeah, I approached people with like AirPods and headphones in and they’re actually more welcoming than people without them,’ so that’s what I started doing and I got like a lot more interviews.
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Cherub Faith Jung from La Mirada, California was also nervous for her first few interviews, but she says that most people in Evanston are nice and open to interviewing. They just have to be asked.
FAITH JUNG: I think the biggest thing is just to go for it.
As the weeks progressed, cherubs got to talk to all kinds of people. Cherub Ben Fogler of Needham, Massachusetts interviewed someone during the Fourth of July parade, who unexpectedly gave him a lot of quotes.
BEN FOGLER: I think I took away that like you really can talk to everyone. Like, the moral of the story I guess is it’s okay to go up to people you probably would not normally talk to and you can honestly get some—like he was one of the best interviews I’ve had here.
After four weeks, cherubs have learned a lot about the art of interviewing and how to get people on the street to agree to going on the record.
CLAIRE: Approach them with the phrase ‘can you help me?’ I did that a lot and most of the time I got a yes, because if you include the word ‘help’ in your phrase, people like feel obligated to like do something for you.
FAITH: Be confident, don’t be shy, be bubbly and happy because more people—people will tend to be nicer if you’re happy and nice as well.
From Evanston, Illinois, I’m Elaine Jiang of Belmont, California.
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