This post is really for students in the UAE, those in Europe and Africa and North America seem to have better curricula and access to better teachers.
What I mostly got from the students that came to interview me was a grave misunderstanding of the profession they were signing up for. I feel comfortable writing this because none of them have publicised the interviews (which were for coursework I think), which means their identities aren’t at risk, only they, their lecturers and I know who they are, so its all good.
The first thing I can't emphasise enough to young journalists is research. It is extremely important and DON'T assume you know things. Make a point of researching your subject and make sure of the reasons you are doing the interview. You need to know who you are interviewing and why they are interesting. If you don’t find them interesting, chances are, nobody else will.
Follow up questions: when someone has answered a question, listen to the answer! Do not just go ahead to the next question you have on your list. Not a single student asked me a follow up question- to one of the newspaper students I may have even thrown in that I used to work for the CIA before becoming a journalist – just got a blank stare from him and the next question. (It’s not true, I was just fed up at that point) But its quite obvious he was so intent on getting his next question out, he didn't listen to the answer. In the real world, you can't afford to miss things.
Know how to use your equipment, one of the students that came to interview me did not know how to use the recording device and also did not have those journalism basics- a notepad and pen. This is incredibly amateur. If you want to get into this profession, grow up immediately.
NEVER be late. In the Middle East, I am well aware of the ‘inshallah’ culture, but you do not have that luxury as a journalist. It is your duty to make sure you know how to get where you’re going and how long it takes to get there. If you are late, an event will start without you and even worse, if you are going to be late to a one-on-one interview, immediately you have put the interviewee off. If they were excited, they won’t be anymore, if they were susceptible they wont be anymore and if they were going to impart some major secret, they won’t. It doesn’t matter if the interviewee is late. It is your job to wait. If you are annoyed waiting, then ask yourself why you are doing this story?
Example: When I first got here, I was sent to a press conference where the Minister of Environment and Water was due to attend- I got there 45 minutes early, because I had just finished at another event. It was just me and a photographer from a tiny UAE newspaper who were there early- shock horror the Minister actually turned up 20 minutes before time, did a couple of photo opportunities, then an interview with me for 10 minutes (a VERY long time in radio!) with a very good angle on the UAE’s green initiatives and left. When everyone else turned up, the photographer girl and I were leaving with the goods, and they had nothing. Also, the minister, Dr Rashid and I are on great terms at meetings now, so thank you everyone who turned up late!
To make my point about the lax attitude here- 3 of the 4 students turned up more than 30 minutes late to my apartment. I was astounded; had I really taken time out of a busy day to make time for people who couldn’t even be bothered to turn up on time? To the two students I turned down after that, I am extremely sorry, but this is one of the reasons why.
Equally important, make sure you have the whole story before you leave an event. In 2007, we sent a reporter to a Dubai Cares Event, it may have even been the first Dubai Cares event ever, I cant remember, but the reporter came back with the angle that Dubai Cares had raised something like 500 million dollars for schools in Africa… but because they left early, they didn’t realise that His Highness Sheikh Mohamed had equalled the amount raised, so it was actually almost a billion dollars. Not the biggest mistake ever, but we did look stupid for a quite a few bulletins.
You have to get into this profession, because you’re passionate about it. What most of us want is to get the truth out; and yes, of course we seek approval for our work, because it means we can keep doing what we love. There isn’t a real journalist out there who seeks fame, if that’s what you’re looking for, you are in the wrong profession.
When I say ‘journalism’ I don’t mean the churning out of press releases- a million of which will get sent to you by some crappy PR company trying to sell their crappy products. Trust me, it’s easy to churn that stuff out, especially here in the Middle East- the dearth of crime and scandal in the UAE certainly make that kind of lazy journalism easy, and let’s be honest, when there’s a tight deadline, we’ve all been victim to it.
But EVEN then- DO NOT rely on one source. PR people and press-releases always want to get their news out to make themselves look positive. If you work in radio or TV, you ALWAYS have time to get one or even two more opinions, even if they are quick and you don’t actually interview those people, you just have to get some of their thoughts on subjects that they are experts on. In newspapers, you have too much time, so if you don’t get at least 4-5 other sources to talk to you, you should go to journalism jail.
Make sure you’ve listened to, watched or read your final piece. If your name is going against something, be sure to know what it is. Also, when I worked in newspapers, sub-editors annoyed the hell out of me by changing things that did not concern them and occasionally changed the angle of the story. In radio and TV, its just to make sure you haven’t left in a massive edit, that makes you look like a big tit- because nobody’s going to remember the story then, they’ll just remember you clearing your throat in that ‘news piece’.
