This interviewing course teaches you how to deepen conversations with friendly sources. It also covers antagonistic situations, when the interviewee is reluctant to talk, evades the questions or is lying. We will practice in role-plays, and give tools to save the conversation and make sure you get useful responses.
We are convinced that the success of an interview is largely determined in the preparation phase. We are the creators of the Story-Based Inquiry method, which relies on the power of imagination. If you can imagine how an interview might go, you can prepare for any difficulties. Hence we exercise in role-plays. With good preparation, you also can get more out of an interview than a few quotes, such as access to an important or dramatic location, introduction into a network of experts, access to documents and data and material to dramatize your story. We also teach how to put your research hypothesis to practical use during interviews.
Finally we will deal with some practical issues: note taking methods, recording and transcription software and writing interviews.Participants will afterwards receive a comprehensive manual with checklists (for preparation) and sample questions for different situations.

1. How to deepen conversations with friendly sources
• Prepare the interview: Assets, Character, Role, Question Burst
• The Second Story
• Listening Techniques: Tips for follow-up questions

2. Antagonistic situations
We will now look deeper into situations often faced by investigative journalists: • When the interviewee is reluctant to talk
• When the interviewee asks not to be quoted or to be kept anonymous
• When the interviewee talks too abstractly
• When the interviewee evades your questions
• When the interviewee is lying
• When the interviewee has to be confronted
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3. Practical issues
• Note taking: Methods and Software
• Recording and transcribing
• Writing up interviews