People like to talk

By Natasha Leadem

  

   I have been a journalist since my sophomore year of high school and it still never ceases to amaze me how willing people are to talk to you, even if you are a complete stranger.  I remember being the editor in chief of my yearbook and having to remind my staffers, “always remember- we’re not stalkers, we’re journalists.” They were always scared to approach sources because they were afraid of getting a bad rap. Anyways the point in this rant of a post is that people are willing to talk, but it’s up to you as a journalist to get them talking. Throughout the semester I have found out that the best way to do this is to not act like a stalker. They like to be looked at and talked to like people, not “subjects” or “sources”. It’s all about being conversational. Sometimes after I’m done interviewing somebody I will just turn off the recorder and keep talking to them. By the end of an interview with a woman named Dawn, a Habitat for Humanity employee, I felt like I had known her for years. Journalism is all about interacting with people and trying to get to know their story, but in order to do this you have to be good at the small talk.