How can one obtain a revealing interview?
In this weekend’s “Observer” newspaper, there’s a long and revealing interview by Charlotte Edwards of the Leader of the Labour Party, soon to be Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. It reminded me of when I was interviewed as a Parliamentary candidate and of when recently I conducted a series of interviews of staff and residents in the block of flats where I live.
I sympathise with Keir Starmer. When I was a local Labour candidate being interviewed by a local newspaper reporter, it was evident that the reporter thought that I was too conventional, too boring even. She wanted some colour. I wanted to avoid any embarrassment. She wanted to maximise her readership. I wanted to maximise my votes.
I sympathise with Charlotte Edwards. Over the last year, I’ve carried out 40 interviews with staff and residents in Rennie Court and River Court in central London where I live. The book has just been published as “Rennie & River: Tales From Two Courts”. In most cases, my interviewees hardly knew me and had never done an interview exploring their life.
I obtained some fascinating stories and some amazing revelations. How? I like to think that I was probing, that I was empathetic, and that I was kind. However, I think the key factor was that I told every interviewee in advance that they would have final say over my text of their profile.
Some did not change a word. Some rewrote a few sections which became better once they had thought more about what they really wanted to say. One person pulled the entire interview.
I wonder if journalists could try this technique – or some version of it – when they interview public figures – or am I being too naive? The deal could be: as interviewee, you sign off on the whole text or simply that you have the right to suggest any changes that you want but the final decision is that of the writer.
I suspect that this type of collaboration would give the interviewer 70% of what they want instead of the 40% that they will otherwise obtain. I guess that it would build up trust between interviewee and interviewer so that the next interview between them would be even better. Just a thought …