Use the method of recording information that best suits you and make sure you plan ahead re questions you are going ask.
Using a tape recorder:
Often a matter of personal choice. Some journalists prefer to use a tape recorder as eye to eye contact is important. It seems more like a normal conversation and the person will often say things she might not if you are taking notes.
The best way of all is to remember everything - but very few people have such good memories. Some people write down everything the minute they leave the interview while it is all still fresh in the minds.
Always ask the interviewee if she/he minds you using a tape recorder. Take a note pad with you anyway to write down proper names etc.
The good thing about taping inverviews is that accusations of misquotation can often be avoided by playing back the bit in question.
Strategy:
- Plan your strategy carefully. Start with the easy questions first to get them talking about themselves
- If you have been commissioned to write the article, ask the magazine or newspaper if they have any information
- Don't do all the easy ones first however, save some to intersperse with the more difficult ones.
- People find it much easier to tell stories than give a precise answer, i.e. "Could you tell be a little bit about your village?"
- Try to keep your questions interesting, especially when with someone who is in the public eye and has been interviewed hundreds of times.
Profiles:
There may be occasions when you will be asked to write a profile about someone, rather than actually having to do a face-to-face interview.
Profiles often contain interviews but they don't have to. Journalists can draw on newspaper clippings, previous magazine stories, books, and anything else that might provide anecdotes or suggest clues to the subject.
Your greatest source of subjects for profiles is newspapers and magazines - all of which can be checked out on the Internet. Don't think that just because somebody has already written a profile of Sally Superstar you can't write one. Read the profile and look for aspects of Sally that were not covered. That could be your angle for writing about her for some other publication.
Almost every newspaper prints profiles regurlary. For examaple, profiles of a football coach, a woman who runs a half-way house for kids, or a local author - local newspapers are very interested in profiles if the person lives in their circulation area.
A good interviewer is a person who is interested in other people, is curious about what makes them tick.
