1 INSTRUCTOR’S RESOURCE GUIDE for Interviewing: Speaking, Listening, and Learning for Professional Life Second Edition Rob Anderson, Saint Louis University and G. Michael Killenberg, University of South Florida St. Petersburg 2 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 http://www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Printing number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. 3 CONTENTS I. Preface II. Why Teach Interviewing? III. Who Are the Authors? Brief Biographies IV. A Vision for the Book V. Key Features of Interviewing VI. Guiding Principles for Experiential Interviewing Classes Classroom Atmosphere Assignments and Grades VII. Sample Syllabus VIII. Using the Book, Chapter by Chapter 4 I: Preface An interviewing course is one of the most interesting and fulfilling opportunities available to communication instructors. In it, students make connections they’ve never considered before and grow in ways they’d never anticipated. At the same time, an interviewing course helps us stretch as instructors in important ways: • Teachers who specialize in interpersonal communication research will find their interests relevant to teaching interviewing, but they also must become familiar with media practices and the range of professions communication students enter. • Teachers who prepare students for media careers in such courses as reporting, broadcast management, public relations, and advertising will find their professional experience directly relevant to interviewing. But many of them will want to read more about the dynamics of face-to-face talk and benefit from broader exposure to communication theory. • Teachers who stress skills and speech performance can continue to do so effectively in an interviewing course, but they also will want to be able to explain how fundamental concepts of communication research contribute to interviewing success. 5 • Teachers who stress goal setting, persuasion, and rhetorical success will find themselves well prepared to teach interviewing, but they also may want to learn more about the ethics, intercultural sensitivities, and philosophical principles underlying the complex choices of interviewers and interviewees in professional life. In other words, an interviewing course is a nexus for many courses in an undergraduate communication curriculum. If you have the opportunity to teach interviewing, you’re likely to become a generalist in the best and most practical sense. We developed this resource guide for instructors who want to augment their courses with extra materials, readings, and activities for their students, or who simply want to deepen their own knowledge and familiarity with various contexts of interviewing. Despite the need to become a generalist, most instructors, we believe, teach interviewing from a “home base” determined by their own experience, skills, or research specialization. For some, that home base might be organizational interviewing. Others start from their interest in interpersonal conversation or from interviews conducted in their own scholarly research. But it’s a rare instructor who has direct professional or research experience in the full range of topics, methods, and approaches covered in the typical general interviewing course. Committed teachers supplement their own experience with a wide range of additional resources representing the direct experience of others. 6 We appreciate your interest in our ideas about interviewing and teaching, and we welcome comments and suggestions from you and your students about the book and, particularly, how we might improve subsequent editions. Please reach us through e-mail at andersonr@accessus.net and killenbe@stpt.usf.edu. 7 II: Why Teach Interviewing? A carefully prepared and rigorous interviewing class provides many benefits for students and teachers: • Interviewing is one of the most practical skill clusters a communication student can learn. Effective interviewers and interviewees can expect to obtain jobs more readily and advance in careers more steadily. Most, if not all, communication professions require interviewing or interview-type skills: Public relations and advertising professionals interview clients to discover their needs and goals; journalists seek politicians’ opinions, which then make news; teachers and trainers question their students to determine what learning goals to stress; sales professionals conduct persuasive interviews daily; personnel managers select and evaluate employees; and so forth. • Interviewing gives students confidence in their ability to interact with different kinds of people — those from different cultures, those with more (or less) power or prestige, those suffering through interpersonal or organizational crises. An education in interviewing is an education in flexibility, sensitivity, and acceptance as well as an avenue to new kinds of personal power. Students in interviewing classes learn that differences of style, content, and culture energize learning. They learn to welcome differences as fertile opportunities. 8 • Interviewing provides students with exceptional opportunities to receive and provide feedback. Many students report that they learn as much or more about themselves in an interviewing class as they do anywhere in the curriculum. They glimpse themselves in action when video recorded. They see and hear how others react to them. They get the benefit of others’ coaching. They learn how to make their personality characteristics — even shyness — work for them rather than against them. • Interviewing is, in a sense, a crossing point or permeable boundary between different segments of the discipline of communication, including interpersonal communication and mass communication. Interviewing is what professionals in organizational communication, rhetoric, public relations, advertising, journalism, and other subfields and research specializations have in common. In an interviewing class, students discover how the overall discipline of communication draws upon a common core of ideas. • Interviewing helps students become better learners in other classes. Studying interviewing has direct transfer value; students learn new ways, for example, to ask a philosophy professor for clarification about Kant or Heidegger. They develop new skills for asking classroom questions in ways that articulate other students’ confusions, and without putting teachers on the defensive. They may develop new creativity, perhaps discovering a term paper topic for urban sociology by wondering if neighborhood police would be available for interviews about changing perceptions of adolescent crime. 9 • Interviewing is one of the foundations of news and public dialogue in a free society. Serious students of interviewing tend to read and watch the news regularly — and critically. If a teacher helps them track carefully how interviews propel presidential debates, shape congressional investigations, and influence foreign policy, they will develop analytical and critical habits that will stay with them for a lifetime. In addition, effective interviewers and interviewees add their own voices to the public dialogue at school board sessions, public hearings, neighborhood association meetings, town hall debates, and local elections. 10 III: Who Are the Authors? We met more than 35 years ago as young assistant professors at a Midwest university, where we worked in a large room of open faculty offices, subdivided by bookcases and filing cabinets. We taught in different departments — Rob in speech communication and Mike in mass communication — but we couldn’t, even if we had wanted to, avoid meeting one another and overhearing each other talking to students and colleagues. As we got to know each other better, we came to realize that together we had something to say about interviewing beyond our own academic disciplines and practical experience. We began to write in collaboration to encourage others to see the benefits of merging practical experience with theoretical concepts and research in human behavior. Some practitioners become antagonistic to theories of any stripe and dismissive of any discussion that is even faintly abstract. On the other hand, some social science researchers dismiss practitioners’ experience as either idiosyncratic or based on unreflective bad habits. Most of us fall in a middle ground, but it’s sometimes hard to get people in separate camps to talk with each other and come to recognize both the valuable practicality of theory-based research and the theoretical potential of vigorous concrete experience. We hope Interviewing helps to bridge gaps between theorists and practitioners. 11 Brief biographies: Rob Anderson has applied his research in the theory of dialogue to practical problems of interviewing, conflict management, listening, and everyday communication ethics. In addition, he has facilitated numerous workshops in interpersonal communication for student and professional audiences. His current interests include exploring how complex institutions like the university and contemporary journalism can enhance public dialogue more effectively. Now professor of communication at Saint Louis University, Rob has received major teaching awards at two universities, and he is the author or coauthor of 11 books and numerous articles in journals in communication, journalism, English, and psychology. G. Michael Killenberg acquired professional interviewing experience as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers, in addition to teaching journalism and mass communication at several colleges and universities. His current research focuses on newspaper-community relations, media law and ethics, and diversity within professional journalism. He was founding director of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where he still teaches undergraduate and graduate students. His publications include numerous articles in professional and popular periodicals. His latest book 12 on public affairs reporting was published in 2008. Besides collaborating on the original and second editions of Interviewing, he and Rob Anderson coauthored Before the Story: Interviewing and Communication Skills for Journalists and The Conversation of Journalism: Communication, Community, and News. 13 IV: A Vision for the Book We wrote Interviewing for instructors and students who want to concentrate on the skills of interviewing through a course both professionally grounded and intellectually challenging. Interviewing will help students develop skills while they think systematically about the process; such an approach will help them decide how (and whether) those skills can be applied. We envision a general interviewing course both as a performance opportunity — a laboratory for skill development — and as an opportunity for students to reflect on the complex processes and ethical challenges of interpersonal communication. Therefore, our textbook describes the practical skills of interviewing in the context of other concepts and courses students encounter as communication majors. We believe that many textbooks tend to present interviewing skills relatively prescriptively and tend to consider the interviewing course as somewhat isolated from the wider curriculum. We want to teach students how to interview and, beyond that, motivate them to become interested in interviewing by, for example, reading more about interviewing, participating more often in interviews in daily life, and applying interviewing skills in other courses. 14 To help instructors meet both objectives in their courses, we adopt what we term a “skills-plus” approach, in which students will understand how skills are related to basic appreciations of interpersonal communication, ethics, and research. Each substantive chapter is divided into two parts — a “Basics” section in which skills are introduced and clearly discussed, and a “Beyond the Basics” section in which interviewing is related to wider issues in communication and everyday life. Although the “Beyond the Basics” discussions also might be considered essential reading by many instructors, other teachers might choose to assign only “The Basics” for certain chapters. V: Key Features of Interviewing • “Skills-plus” orientation — We describe essential skills thoroughly and go on to place them in conceptual context. With an effective blend of skills, appreciations, and knowledge, interviewing is therefore linked to other courses in the major, such as communication theory, research methods, interpersonal communication, listening, mass communication, organizational communication, and intercultural communication. Although the book helps students understand the concepts supporting behavioral advice, we’ve been selective in citing research; long footnotes detailing multiple research studies do not help students taking an interviewing course. 15 • Helpful and flexible organization within chapters — Each chapter is divided into “The Basics” and “Beyond the Basics” sections, allowing instructors more choice in making assignments and adapting the text to their courses. • Helpful and flexible overall organization of chapters — The chapters of Part One develop basic skills and appreciations. The chapters of Part Two describe specific interview contexts and strategies. The final chapters in Part Three place interviewing in a wider analytical and cultural context. • Clear division of basic interviewing skills into three interrelated types — listening, questioning, and framing. Listening is emphasized as the skill that enables interviewbased learning in the first place; questioning is emphasized as the skill that focuses learning; and framing is emphasized as the skill that interprets and places learning in appropriate context. We believe no other text emphasizes listening skills as much as this one does, and no other text offers an extended treatment of the practical applications of the skill of framing. • Student-friendly writing — We use a narrative style in which stories and examples, often about everyday college life, help students relate to the terms, concepts, and practices we introduce. Through examples and stories, students can see interviewing as an opportunity to learn more about their campuses, about their families and friends, and about themselves. 16 • Emphasis on how interviewing contributes to the quality of public dialogue — Throughout the book, we reinforce how interviewing can support democratic action. Perhaps more than any other textbook, Interviewing stresses how an awareness of communication ethics makes better citizens — citizens whose talk will be more civil, sensitive, and attuned to other voices in the political process. • Integrated approach to both interviewer and interviewee roles — Interviewing, unlike some other textbooks, prepares students to be responsive and effective when conducting interviews. It also shows them how the roles of interviewer and interviewee are fully interdependent. • Integrated ethics approach — Ethics, we stress, is not a separate concern for interview communicators; it is involved in all message choices. We offer examples of ethical issues in each chapter. • Integrated cultural approach — Recognizing the expanding diversity of our world, we offer straightforward discussion and analysis of multicultural issues within each skill or context. • Integrated treatment of interviewer and interviewee issues in employment interviewing in the same chapter — We present the goals and problems of interviewer and interviewee as interrelated instead of separate activities. Some other textbooks divide them into different chapters. 17 • Innovative boxed supplements — “Interviewers/Interviewees in Action” boxes provide first-person accounts of interviewing successes and failures. “Reminders” boxes help students organize and remember what they’ve learned and extend important ideas. “Trying Out Your Skills” boxes give students practical ways to test their learning, often by analyzing brief interview excerpts. End-of-chapter “Making Your Decision” boxes present hypothetical situations, often oriented toward ethics, that encourage students to apply their knowledge creatively. In addition, each chapter includes “The Interview Bookshelf,” an annotated section recommending books that students will find helpful for further reading or future interviewing-related assignments in other classes. 18 VI: Guiding Principles for Experiential Interviewing Classes Every experienced teacher personalizes classes to fit his or her pedagogical style, personality, students’ interests, and so on. No stranger should tell another professional how to teach. However, teachers commonly discuss and share principles and techniques, and we’re pleased to have the opportunity to do that here. However tentatively, we offer the following guidelines. Classroom atmosphere: • Personalize and informalize the classroom environment as much as possible. For example, a circular arrangement in a class of 20–30 students will probably be appropriate for most class activities. Relatively informal atmospheres allow students to be involved and recognized as persons. And it is as persons that students ask us to react to their goals and needs. • Keep students talking with each other. A class that is learner-centered and relatively conversational is most consistent with the goals of an interviewing course. Hints: You might have questions you’d like the class to answer, but don’t rely merely on asking questions, and don’t assume that all class commentary must either be said by you or addressed to you. 19 Facilitating class discussion is not very different from the role of an interviewer who is engaged in active listening. After particularly effective or controversial student comments, ensure you’ve heard the speakers accurately by paraphrasing and relating the comments to other relevant points. Stay out of some conversations if possible, encouraging students to direct their comments to each other and to each other’s points. If you feel you must redirect the conversation, do so with a brief summary that does justice to the issues and those who have spoken about them to that point. If you want to ask a specific question, make sure you wait long enough to let the group process it and think through its implications. Sometimes teachers worry that class members are disinterested if they’re silent for a few seconds after a question is asked, but the opposite may be true — they may be so intrigued by a new insight that they have to rethink what they want to say about it. In advising interviewers, we refer to this problem as one of allowing for sufficient “wait time,” and we as teachers need to remind ourselves of this, too. One especially valuable approach for encouraging student talk in an interviewing class is to work often either with freewriting or with dyads, or both, when opening a discussion of a new idea. For example, you might introduce a discussion of 20 employment interviewing by giving individuals five minutes or so to write out everything they remember from either their best job interviewing experience or their worst job interviewing experience. Then, create dyads in which students each ask the other about his or her experiences, compare them with their own, and discuss which text concepts are best illustrated in these experiences. A 10-minute dyad fuels a more vigorous, more pointed, and perhaps even (with a teacher’s nudging) a more conceptual class discussion by preloading specific experiences that will illustrate (or perhaps contradict) text ideas. Of course, teachers must be wary of the tendency to let such conversations simply become griping or boasting sessions, or just a listing of different and undifferentiated happenings. • Share your own experiences and interests, but avoid using them to prescribe right ways and wrong ways for students to behave. • Vary in-class experiences: discussion, lectures, guest speakers, analysis of video and audio examples, hands-on activities. • Plan experiential activities and communication experiments to demonstrate the power of interviewing; don’t just advocate or talk about a strategy or skill, but work to show it. At the same time, remember: — Link classroom experiences to previous learning and previous activities. One way to do this is to say something like: 21 “For the past several weeks, we’ve looked at three basic interview skills — listening, questioning, and framing. Now it’s time to see how those skills can work together in a specific context. Many of you are about to graduate, so your courses have helped you listen carefully, speak clearly, and interpret what’s going on below the surface of communication. Well, after graduation a job hunt will consume your time, if it hasn’t started to do that already. Most of you look pretty confident about the job search . . . am I wrong? “Today, I want to show you a video recording of a practice interview involving Leslie Jackson, a counselor from the Career Center, and Serena Joelle, one of last year’s outstanding seniors. Both of them have given permission to let you analyze their best efforts to communicate in this kind of tense situation. Watch this 10-minute segment and pay particular attention to how each person’s listening style affects the other, how the phrasing of questions might affect the answers, and any clues to how each participant is framing the situation. I suggest we divide into three groups, each watching for clues to these different things. . . .” — Introduce activities clearly, and make sure all participants know the ground rules. Many valuable activities are not highly instrumented and are relatively uncomplicated for teachers to use in class. But be sure you don’t introduce them 22 in such an offhanded way that it leaves students confused about what you want them to do. The night before, you might practice a one- or two-sentence extemporaneous introduction of the activity, just as you would rehearse a brief but important speech. Ask yourself: How could my instructions be misinterpreted? With more complex activities, including ones that require handouts, rating sheets, and checklists, the need for clear instructions increases. Answering and reanswering questions about instructions that could have been clear in the first place wastes the scarce resource of class time. — Allow sufficient time. Don’t try to shoehorn an activity into a time period that won’t allow learning to develop naturally. You don’t want to be in the position of saying, “Well, we have to break this off for today because it’s already 3:25. If we’d had enough time to finish it, you would have found that. . . .” It’s usually better to let class out early than to try to rush through a 30-minute activity in 12– 15 minutes. — Process and debrief activities realistically. One persistent challenge of teaching interviewing is how contingent and variable some commonly accepted principles seem to be when they are actually tested by experience. Classroom exercises may not turn out the way you hope. There are many exceptions to the “rules,” and many highly visible and successful interviewers and interviewees exhibit behavior that violates textbooks’ well-considered advice. Be careful of “never do this” statements, and persistently invite 23 students to dissect why one interviewer might be successful using a “technique” that falls flat for another interviewer. — Link the discoveries from classroom activities to subsequent work. If possible, include in your summarizing comments a preview of upcoming skills, concepts, and lessons that students can carry with them as they prepare for classes and assignments. Then be sure you actually use the activity’s insights later, referring back to them when appropriate. Students tend to remember what they learn by doing, and you will often be able to make sensible connections with them over a period of many weeks. In this book, for example, instruction about the helping interview is one of the later topics, as it is in most interviewing courses. However, students readily remember late in the course the empathy and active listening exercises with which the skills of listening were introduced, in the second, third, or fourth week. Assignments and grades: Few tasks in education are more touchy than talking with other teachers about assignments and grading policies. Each experienced teacher has his or her own pet assignments — and pet peeves about syllabi, papers, examinations, grading, and study skills. In fact, we encourage you to consult other prominent interviewing texts to discover their approaches to some of these same problems; we especially like Stewart and Cash’s Interviewing: Principles and Practices (McGraw-Hill), Barone and Switzer’s 24 Interviewing Art and Skill (Allyn & Bacon), Wilson and Goodall’s Interviewing in Context (McGraw-Hill), and Stewart’s Interviewing Principles and Practices: Applications and Exercises (Kendall/Hunt). We don’t presume to tell others precisely how to evaluate students. Instead, we offer suggestions that we have used effectively in our courses: • Don’t make students memorize lists. Contemporary conventions of writing textbooks, and to some extent student expectations as well, encourage authors to create bullet-point lists of important points and issues. Please remember that as authors we’ve created lists to supplement more complex discussions of ideas, and to allow readers to look up answers to questions readily. However, the lists, and order of items within them, have no inherent educational value beyond those goals. We believe it’s counterproductive to ask students to memorize things like the “six advantages of tape recording an interview.” (Other writers could easily divide the same ideas into five or seven or even eight points.) In general, we should instead ask that student responses apply knowledge both accurately and creatively, and put ideas into practice. • Create “examinations” for students, not simply “tests.” These words aren’t synonyms. Even though the distinction may seem trivial to some people, the connotations of “examination” invite teachers to raise with students such issues as: exams as feedback to the teacher, exams as opportunities for students to gauge their own progress, exams as opportunities for students to see what teachers consider important, and exams as goalsetting opportunities. We believe that considering these things merely as “tests” 25 encourages students simply to take a grade and file it away in their notebooks, hoping to “do better next time.” Generally, teachers want to examine, and want students to examine, two things in written exams. First, they want to know if students have a specific grasp of concepts, terminology, and research; this will allow the learner to progress further into a subject on his or her own. Without this kind of knowledge, students founder even if they are interested in a topic. Traditionally, teachers have written multiple-choice questions to probe this kind of knowledge, although matching, identification, and true-false items also are used. Second, teachers want to know if students have a sophisticated grasp of how the concepts and terms fit together, and how they can be applied in practical situations. This pragmatic pattern-knowledge allows learners to transfer what they know from one situation to another, and separates the mere memorizers from the students who are truly learning. Traditionally, essay exams probe this kind of learning. The problem, of course, is that so-called objective items like multiple-choice and so-called subjective questions like essay opportunities yield different kinds of information for teachers. • Stress true-false/explain (t-f/e) items in examinations. We recommend a hybrid approach of exams composed largely of true-false/explain questions, perhaps supplemented by brief identification items and short-answer essays. A true-false/explain question can probe specific knowledge while allowing the learner to explain or justify a response briefly and succinctly. Each item is a declaration or assertion of some sort, and an exam can be a teacher’s creative mix of straightforward and sophisticated items. For 26 example, a t-f/e “question” can ask the student to make a value judgment that is based on knowing several important terms in the statement: “An ethnographer must never proceed with an interview without obtaining full and written ‘informed consent’ from interviewees. T___ F___ Why?” (Leave several lines for student to answer.) Suggestions for writing and administering t-f/e exams: 1. Write your own items, or use suggested ones from this resource guide. If you choose only sentences from the text, reproducing them or inserting a tricky “not” here or there, students may develop the impression that you want them to memorize the text or merely adopt the company line. 2. Make sure your items are drawn from all sections of the chapter(s) you are examining. 3. Tell students beforehand that you believe each statement is basically true or false, but that an individual answer that differs from yours may in fact convince you that the writer has grasped the concept(s) and can apply them well. Although students still may disagree at times with your interpretations, they will generally appreciate the ability to explain themselves rather than have to outguess the intentions and semantics of your items. 4. Explanations for statements the student believes to be true should provide examples or further information to illuminate the statement, while explanations for statements the student believes to be false should describe clearly what makes the statement untrue. (At times, students will say: “If it’s false, I know what to write, but if it’s true, it’s just . . . well . . . true! I don’t know what more to say.” 27 However, once they understand your expectations, they will see readily that an accurate or reasonable statement can be related to a particular kind of interviewing, to the approach of a particular researcher, or perhaps has an important reservation. The important thing is to get students thinking beyond the questions themselves.) 5. This type of exam does not reward guessing. It does, however, partially reward students who have some grasp of the material but may still make some mistakes (don’t we all?). Tell students that simply marking T, if an item is true, or F, if it’s false, will earn no points. It’s the combination of (a) taking a position, and (b) for a clear reason that earns points. 6. Place a limit on the responses, perhaps instructing: “Respond to each item with two or three complete sentences; no sentence fragments, please.” 7. We suggest a three-point scale for responding to each question: 0 points: student does not answer; marks only T or F with no explanation; or is clearly not knowledgeable about the statement’s concepts or terms. 1 point: student has some understanding of the idea but mixes things up in such a way as to demonstrate that he or she doesn’t understand the context, or the full implications of the idea. 2 points: student is essentially correct, but misses an important point, or may misstate or misattribute a concept. 3 points: student has an accurate grasp of the idea and its implications, and has explained it well in the space allotted. (At times this form of exam encourages instructors to give points, perhaps full credit, for responses in 28 which students disagree with teachers or the text. This is an advantage, not a disadvantage, if we as teachers take the opportunity to write responses to students on the exams, and use these items as springboards for further discussion.) • Ensure that students meet and have the opportunity to question professional interviewers, either in or out of class. Teachers (we speak from firsthand experience here) often overestimate the value and relevance of our own experience; we may think at times that we can be our students’ only conduit for interviewing insights. Note: There appears to be a tacit assumption on most campuses that student interviewing research done outside class but within the parameters of specific class assignments — and not intended for publication or other public dissemination — need not be approved on a case-by-case basis by college research review boards. Students and faculty in a reporting class, for example, are not required to gain prior approval for the many interviews the students must conduct in order to write their weekly stories. However, teachers should check with their own campus research review boards to determine any specific rules that might apply to their students’ interviews. Some schools are quite diligent about protecting the rights of people interviewed or tested as part of a research study. • Structure autonomous interviewing experiences from which students learn in systematic ways. Depending on your teaching style and goals, this may mean you will want to develop your own checklists and feedback forms for out-of-class assignments like videorecorded practice and critique. 29 • Video record student interviews, with feedback. Emphasize that students should take student/student interview assignments seriously; students who fail to complete required out-of-class video-recording and feedback assignments should not receive a passing grade for the course, whatever their grades in other written course assignments. We set up and facilitate feedback with team video recording (see sample syllabus) by using: (1) a “personal interest inventory” filled out by each student early in the term, to which everyone in class will have access; (2) a “video-recorded interview observation sheet,” with which student teammates give each other feedback immediately after each out-ofclass recording session; and (3) in-class “workshopping” sessions in which each student who volunteers will be coached by the entire class. Let’s examine each of these in turn. PERSONAL INTEREST INVENTORY (Note: Teachers can fill these out, too, so students can get more perspective on your approach to the class. Stress that if students believe any question to be too personal, they can skip it.) Full name (nickname?): Address for this term: Phone: E-mail address that you check daily: Major, minor: Extracurricular activities: 30 Age: Jobs held in past: Current job and anticipated career path: Personal entertainment preferences: Social or political commitments: “I’m in school because . . .”: “In my spare time, I . . .”: “I can put together a pretty good . . .”: “Ten years from now, I’ll probably . . .”: “My most common roles among family and friends are . . .”: “Before you start communicating with me, you probably should know . . .” RECORDED INTERVIEW OBSERVATION SHEET (Note: Some teachers may want to revise this form to a checklist format. We’ve found it effective to ask student observer/critics to take notes while watching the interview and then afterward write comments for interviewer and interviewee.) Observers: Thoroughly familiarize yourselves with this sheet before the interview. This frees you considerably to notice behaviors and comment. Be as specific as possible in noting what you see and hear, not simply your conclusions like “nice” or “uncomfortable.” Share this feedback with both interviewer (ER) and interviewee (EE) after the interview, keep the original, and photocopy the sheet for the other participant. 31 How would you characterize: The general tone of the interview? The effectiveness of the ER’s opening and closing styles? The ability of the ER to phrase primary questions? The ability of the ER to follow up with suitable probe questions? The listening habits of the ER? The feedback provided by the ER? The degree of directiveness exhibited by the ER? The responsiveness of the EE? The defensiveness level of the EE? The congruence between verbal and nonverbal messages of ER and EE? The effects of observation and recording on ER and EE? Other comments or suggestions? INSTRUCTIONS FOR WORKSHOPPING AND COACHING: IN-CLASS SESSIONS WITH STUDENT VOLUNTEERS’ VIDEO RECORDINGS — Each student volunteer will preselect and cue up a five-minute segment to show the class; 32 — Each volunteer will introduce his or her excerpt briefly by placing it in context of the overall interview; — Each volunteer will ask the group two or three questions about their reactions to his or her communication behaviors; — After viewing the segment, the class will (1) respond to the student’s questions; (2) highlight the strengths of the volunteer’s interviewing; (3) suggest improvements, especially focusing on the areas the volunteer is curious about. Different parts of the segment may need to be replayed to reinforce points made in the feedback. • Be clear and specific with students at the outset of the course about your expectations for participation; this is not a course in which someone can opt out of assignments or most exercises simply because he or she is uncomfortable. Students’ discomfort with interpersonal situations may be the very reason why a course in interviewing is important for them to take. A useful analogy may be the case of swimming lessons. People who take swimming lessons may indeed be afraid of the water, but no one who signs up for instructions expects to be able to avoid this fear by practicing strokes and breathing out of the water, or by grasping only the theory of swimming. Rather, they learn to swim by swimming . . . or they decide they don’t really want to take swimming lessons. Just as there are no swimming lessons without swimming, there is no interviewing class without some of the interpersonal discomfort (for certain students, at least) of interviewing 33 strangers, being asked about one’s beliefs, and volunteering for feedback in class through role-playing scenarios and similar activities. • Create a blend of assignments that make it clear that students who earn an A (for example) will be able to perform well in the graded interviews and understand the ideas and concepts that will allow them to transfer learning easily from one situation to another. In other words, the assignments of the course should reflect the fact that competence in interviewing involves skill, knowledge, and the ethical sensitivity to decide if what can be done should be done. • Discuss your assignment sequence openly with students early in the term. Many instructors find that the graded assignments in an interviewing course will be somewhat backloaded; that is, most major recorded grades or points are earned in the second half of the course. This can be justified because it’s at least somewhat unfair to grade students heavily on performance behaviors before they’ve developed the skills and background that will enable them to do well — and many interviewing classes have far too many students and too little class time for teachers to be able to grade individual and incremental performance work early in the term (as in a public speaking course, for example). If your course is backloaded in this way, you should remind students early and forcefully about the assignment sequence, so they can plan their assignment workloads accordingly. (See the sample syllabus in this guide for an example of a somewhat backloaded schedule of assignments.) In our experience, most students do well with this organization, but some experience anxiety about how they’re doing when the first major 34 grade comes just before midterm. Instructors who are concerned about this structure and who would rather plug in more graded assignments early can do so easily: Substitute several shorter quizzes for a midterm exam, insert a minor out-of-class performance expectation or two in the first several weeks, or do both. 35 VII: Sample Syllabus Note to instructors about syllabus preparation: The following syllabus is based upon a number of assumptions: a one-semester course; within a communication major; at a four-year institution; at the junior level; with a campus facility available for student video recording. With minor variations, it can be adapted to the quarter system; to professional business programs; to the community college experience; and for students who don’t have ready access to institutional assistance in recording. The sample syllabus includes a lengthy introduction some instructors will find dispensable, but we’ve found that it helps students orient to the expectations of an experiential course. We ask students to assume significant responsibility for out-of-class scheduling with video-recording partners, field-assignment partners, and interaction with community professionals and other interviewees. In our experience, once this expectation is clarified and the reasons for it explained, virtually all students cooperate enthusiastically. It’s wise, however, to have a straightforward discussion of ground rules and trust early in the term. For example, we recommend that instructors overtly discuss with their classes the implications of representation, because each student represents the class, the department, 36 and the institution as he or she interacts with professionals and community representatives. While the beginning student may feel relatively unqualified, and may see assignments as practice interviews, they are decidedly not “practice” for an elderly politician, for example, who is asked to relive a career’s worth of memories over several days by a student interviewer. They are real events, and are usually taken very seriously by these cooperative external interviewees. Issues of consent, as well, can be previewed early in the term in addition to the more detailed discussions in later text chapters. All interviewing teachers and students should work hard to avoid a situation in which outside interviewees could feel used or manipulated in any way. Again, review any campus stipulations on behavioral and human-subject research that might apply to out-of-class assignments, and comply with these regulations. Video work presents special dilemmas, since not every campus has the facilities or equipment to handle student requests readily. Some facilities will train your students in how to use their resources, while others will prefer to have their own personnel in charge. Some will accommodate drop-ins, while others will insist on a rigorously followed schedule of reservations. Bear in mind that many students will have access to their own video cameras. The best advice is to check out the available facilities and policies before finalizing your syllabus. Think of a syllabus as a coordinating device and as a fairness check, rather than as an ironclad contract that must be followed legalistically. It is a contract of sorts, of course, but mainly it’s a direct way to communicate with each student. Avoid adjusting the 37 syllabus expectations for one student without adjusting it (or offering to do so) for all. One useful guideline for making syllabus exceptions: Do you believe you would feel comfortable explaining the exception to the whole class, and are you reasonably sure that these other students, knowing what you’d know, would consider it a fair exception for the person(s) involved? Finally, instructors should emphasize their willingness to spend time outside class with students, especially on topics such as employment interviewing, research interviewing, and, with student reporters, journalistic interviewing. Class time is at a premium, and many students will find the topics of their own special interest passed by too rapidly. Use office hours to give specific students extra attention on assignments. Even though most campuses have career centers that help with mock interviews and resume preparation, students appreciate their instructors’ assistance with these matters, too. We assume that instructors will use the online teaching and communication resources available to them and their students through university-operated systems such as Blackboard, for example, which can be used for blogging and posting of assignments, among other features. SYLLABUS: INTERVIEWING 38 COMMUNICATION XXX Spring 2009 Teacher office: phone: e-mail: office hours: INTRODUCTION: Many people regard the interview either as a chore to be accomplished as mechanically and systematically as possible, or as an unpleasant interrogation with participants often feeling distrustful, fearful, and competitive. Occasionally, interviewers assume they need to show off and impress the interviewee; too often, they assume that an extended monologue is desirable. If things go badly, interviewees can feel “on the spot” and defensive . . . or they can end the interview abruptly, leaving the interviewer in the lurch. I tend to consider the interviewing situation, though, as simply a concentrated attempt to understand another person (or his or her information) through direct and immediate communication. This communication skill is practical for virtually every communication professional, including journalists, managers, trainers, teachers, advertising executives, and public relations consultants. Usually, interviews are face-to- 39 face meetings, and they usually involve questions to generate information about a specified topic or topics. In an interview, the need for dialogue, acceptance, sensitivity, and empathic response is as great as in any communication relationship. This doesn't mean, of course, that an interviewer has to agree with — or become emotionally involved with — interviewees; it does mean that he or she must be an effective listener and clarifier. In many ways, in fact, it's impossible to separate "interviewing" from the listening skills that enable it. Our course will invite you to become familiar with relevant research in listening, questioning, framing, analyzing interview goals, and other interaction factors. But beyond this, and more important, it provides a vehicle for you to apply your learning (and other insights about communication) again and again in practical everyday settings. You should notice real improvement in your ability to interact readily and effectively, both verbally and nonverbally, with a variety of people. TEXT: Rob Anderson and G. Michael Killenberg, Interviewing: Speaking, Listening, and Learning for Professional Life, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). EXPECTATIONS: I expect you to attend and participate actively in class activities. This is especially important because this is an experiential (experience-based) class, not 40 primarily a lecture-based course. If you aren’t here or choose not to participate much, you aren’t likely to get much out of the experience. TENTATIVE TOPIC SCHEDULE: Jan. 13: Introduction to the course Jan. 15: Interviewing and introducing each other Jan. 20: What are interviews? (Read Chapter 1) Jan. 22: Are skills enough? (Read Chapter 2) Jan. 27: Interview partners as listeners (Read Chapter 3) Jan. 29: Your listening style Feb. 3: The question of questioning (Read Chapter 4) Feb. 5: Practicing questioning styles Feb. 10: Framing skills (Read Chapter 5) Feb. 12: Examples and framing activities Feb. 17: Journalistic interviewing (Read Chapter 6) Feb. 19: The daily life of a reporter (Guest lecturer) 41 Feb. 24: Informal reports: Field experience interviews (paper due) Feb. 26: Research interviewing (Read Chapter 7) March 3: Research interviewing, cont. March 5: Exam 1 March 10, 12: No class (Spring Break) March 17: Discussion of Exam 1; preview of remaining topics March 19: Selection interviewing and the interviewee (Read Chapter 8) March 24: Selection interviewing and the interviewer (Guest lecturer) March 26: Organizational interviewing for performance appraisal (Read Chapter 9) March 31: Other organizational interviews April 2: Persuasive interviewing (Read Chapter 10) April 7: Persuasive interviewing, cont. April 9: Helping and diagnostic interviewing (Read Chapter 11) April 14: Analyzing broadcast interviews (Read Chapter 12) 42 April 16: Exam 2 April 21: Workshop: Bring video recordings April 23: Informal reports: Dyadic dialogue interviews (paper due) April 28: Workshop: Bring video recordings April 30: Workshop, wrap-up, and course evaluation (Read Chapter 13) (videotape, log, and analysis due) ASSIGNMENTS: 1. TWO EXAMS (Each 20 percent of grade). Exams will cover text readings, lectures, handouts, and in-class discussion materials. They are designed to let you demonstrate how principles of dyadic communication can be applied. Prepare for true-false/explain, short-answer essay, and identification items. When appropriate, some questions may ask you for illustrations from your out-of-class assignments. Late exams will be scheduled only for genuine emergencies, and may be in a form different from the regularly scheduled exam. Exams missed for reasons other than emergencies may also be made up, but the grade will be reduced by one letter. 2. FIELD EXPERIENCE (20 percent of grade). Interview (face-to-face) two nonfaculty professionals who specialize in dyadic communication (journalists, social workers, 43 personnel managers, counselors or therapists, etc.). Choose people who are not family members or close friends of you or your family. Use the interviews to discover their styles of interviewing and the advice they'd give you, based on their experience. In a fiveto eight-page paper, typed and double-spaced, summarize what they tell you, relate their ideas to concepts and skills of this course, note any disagreements or inconsistencies, and discuss your own position. (Suggestion: These people can be professionals doing jobs you are considering for your own career.) Due _____. 3. EXTENDED DYADIC DIALOGUE (20 percent of grade). Schedule at least three face-to-face visits with someone in the community who has agreed to cooperate with you (not an immediate family member), and from whom you'd like to learn something. Older citizens are often enthusiastic interviewees who have much to share, and who especially appreciate being asked about their experiences. You might want to focus on the interviewee's memories, crafts, skills, knowledge, or social involvement. I'd suggest you start early in the term exploring the idea with potential interviewees and arranging for the meetings; in addition to the suggestions on oral history in the textbook, I’ll have more handouts that will help you plan and conduct this sort of interview. While interviewing, keep notes, recordings (if OK with interviewee), and also log entries of your conversations in a continuing journal. This will aid you in writing a five- to eightpage paper, typed and double-spaced, due _____. This paper should describe the communication choices you made, the nature of your experience, relevant features of the relationship, and most important, why you believe the interviews progressed as they did. 44 Be specific in relating your experience to the course readings. Each of you will be giving an informal report to the class on what you learned in your interviews. 4. VIDEO-RECORDING WORK (20 percent of grade; but see “Reminder” that follows). Each student will be responsible for scheduling the following activities during out-ofclass time: — Two (or more) 15-minute segments as interviewer, with others in class acting as interviewees; — Two (or more) 15-minute segments as interviewee, with others in the class acting as interviewers; — Two (or more) 15-minute observations of interviews conducted by others in the class. Early in the semester, I’ll help the class create “practice groups” of three or four students. Each group should schedule its times for recording with the Instructional Media Center (IMC), which has a special multipurpose “mini-studio” especially designed for this kind of activity. Contact the circulation/scheduling desk at the IMC for more information. All members of the three-person groups should be present at each recording, but the groups with four members can record with only three present; in other words, don’t record without an observer. Note: If someone in the group has personal access to equivalent equipment and can produce high-quality videos with clear sound, you don’t need to use the IMC facilities. 45 To complete this assignment, you should: 1. Obtain your own videotape or digital recording medium (drive, disk, etc.) at the beginning of the semester, and label it with your name. Record your work as an interviewer (two or more 15-minute interviews). Note: It is not necessary for you to keep rerecording interviews until you’re completely satisfied with your “performance.” Not many people are ever completely satisfied, and more than a few are typically surprised and upset at what they see. This is natural. Think of it this way: a video recording with some problem areas may give you more to analyze later! 2. Keep an accurate log of dates, times, and places for all group recording sessions. That is, your log should describe clearly which occasions you were interviewer, which occasions you were interviewee, and which occasions you were the observer/critic. In planning and scheduling times, remember that it’s best for the observer to provide feedback to interviewer and interviewee as soon after the session as possible. The IMC has individual carrels with computers and equipment for reviewing the recordings immediately. 3. On the last day of class, submit a large envelope with (a) your video recording, (b) your log, (c) the observer feedback sheets for your interviews, and (d) a fiveto eight-page typed analysis of your video recording. In the analysis, note your 46 areas of strength and relative weakness as an interview partner — as shown in the recordings — and describe what you intend to do to improve your interviewing skills. Be sure to link your analysis to the course concepts, relevant research, and skills in listening and questioning we’ve discussed during the semester. Reminder: This is a requirement for completing the course. Without evidence from the log that you have fulfilled this assignment fully, I won't assign a passing grade for your participation in the class, regardless of your other grades. Remember in the recording sessions: — You aren't limited to two of each activity. This is an excellent opportunity to practice your interviewing skills and be critiqued. — Schedule times with your partners and with any assisting university personnel as commitments, not as "I think I can make it then . . . " possibilities. Schedule times as groups of three or four (EE, ER, one or two observers) to allow for a review of the video and discussion of strengths and weaknesses. — Observers are responsible for completing an observation sheet for the participants, critiquing them orally, and giving the sheet for each session to the interviewer. 47 — Later in the term, we'll schedule class time during which our entire group will be able to respond to your efforts. Remember: Don't delete or erase your recordings! We'll discuss practical interviewing problems, alternatives, and applications to other interviewing situations. — A file of personal-interest inventories of class members will be kept in my office for your reference prior to interviews. This research is important for interviewers’ preparation of a reasonable schedule of questions and topics. — Interviews may focus on a single aspect of the interviewee's experience, attitudes, values, and so on; or on a general profile of the person; or on what a "typical day" for them is like; or on talents they have; or . . . use your imagination. EEs and ERs should not meet to preplan their interview. Give the direction at first to the ER, and see what develops. — You aren't role playing in these interviews. You should be responding to each other personally, right there, right then . . . but maintain a reasonably professional style you could transfer to other interviews you'll conduct in your careers. Certainly, any attempts to pose, to perform, to "help each other out" artificially, or to plant in-jokes, are likely to be embarrassingly obvious. 48 — Although I'm not directly involved in this process, please stay in contact with me as your practice sessions develop. Let's talk informally about the interviewing problems and successes you discover. CRITERIA FOR COURSE PAPERS: 1. Does the paper reflect informed reading, accurate understanding, and serious consideration of interpersonal concepts? 2. Is the paper clearly written and well organized? 3. Does the paper demonstrate the clear voice and creativity of the author? 4. Is the paper in compliance with rules of style, and does it properly cite and attribute sources? 5. Does the paper satisfy the assignment? 6. Is the paper on time? (I will accept late papers without penalty only if you experience genuine emergencies. Out of fairness to other class members, other kinds of late papers will be lowered one letter grade.) ACADEMIC HONESTY: 49 (Many institutions request or require instructors to include a statement in syllabi that details the institution’s policy on plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty.) 50 VIII: Using the Book, Chapter by Chapter CHAPTER 1: Beyond the Q&A Presumption: Interviewing with a Listening/Learning Perspective • The nitty-gritty Chapter 1 is an overview of the book’s guiding principles and major assumptions. It justifies why we supplement the traditional interviewing emphasis on questions and questioning with strong emphases on listening and framing, and justifies the practicality of these skills. Without reading this chapter closely, students may regard listening as relatively automatic and as too simplistic, and may dismiss framing as mere academic jargon. After a preview of the different types of professional interviews the book will cover later, Chapter 1 presents students with an introductory exercise in informational interviewing. The chapter concludes by presenting interviewing in an ethical context, and in terms of its contributions to a democratic public dialogue — both topics that will come up again and again throughout the book. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — Consider using the “Trying Out Your Skills” (TOYS) box as an exercise that helps students introduce each other to the class. You can either regard this as a highly informal 51 process, or adapt it to link with public speaking skills students may have developed. After each introduction, let the rest of the class ask additional questions of the introducing speaker, who must respond without the help of the student being introduced (“What kind of books does she read? I don’t know; we didn’t get into that. I’d guess she wouldn’t like romance novels much, though”); this will allow gaps of information to be filled in, and will provide an opening for you to talk about the nature of inference in interviewing. Then the person introduced can correct any misunderstandings before you move on to the next introduction. This exercise may take two class periods or more, but we’ve found it pays off in setting a vigorous climate of interchange. By the way, many teachers like to participate fully in these opening exercises. — The “Making Your Decision” (MYD) boxes in the book were designed primarily for private reflection of readers, as a reminder of how intricate decision making in interviewing situations can be. However, these situations are readily adaptable for classroom discussion. For example, some teachers may want to make a standing assignment that asks students to come to class on the first day of each chapter’s discussion with a tentative personal position on each MYD situation. Other teachers may choose to adapt these situations to a journaling assignment; students could consider each and write a paragraph or two discussing their opinions in light of the concepts discussed in the chapter. (Journals should not be the mere ventilation of opinions, but the elaboration of tentative insights developed through reading and careful consideration.) • Additional activities and discussion questions 52 Almost every icebreaker activity appropriate for an interpersonal communication course is also appropriate for an interviewing course. Try a name circle. Arrange the class in a circle, and ask the first person to state his or her name and a hobby or interest that distinguishes that person. Then the next person states the previous name and hobby, adding his or her own, and the process continues around the circle until the last person has heard names and hobbies repeated so often that he or she can introduce the whole circle. (Teachers should participate, too.) No one should take notes; one of the unique values of this activity is that it generates lots of mistakes in a short period of time, but in a climate that’s nonthreatening. Another advantage is that it gets many people noticed, and associated with their names. It’s good to supplement this activity with a brief warning about the dangers of frozen stereotypes (when someone chooses the label of “Patricia the poet,” she might be a pro wrestling fan, too), along with a discussion of how the group has already begun to work together. • Additional resources In this and subsequent chapters, we will suggest resources (often articles and broadcast interviews) that you might want to use somehow in your course. We’ve concentrated on materials and suggestions not already mentioned prominently in the book, so that you might use them in extra assignments of your own choosing or for your own background reading. Bear in mind that this is a highly selective list; thousands of books, articles, and 53 research studies are relevant to interviewing, and almost all specialized professional tasks have their own literature in interviewing. In addition, virtually all news and fact-based entertainment broadcasting feature direct or indirect interviewing. Print DeVito, J. (2008). The interviewing guidebook. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. Nelson, D. (1995, July/August). It’s time to retire the classic confrontation interview — Most of the time, there are better alternatives. IRE Journal, 5–7. Pawson, R. (1996). Theorizing the interview. British Journal of Sociology, 47, 295–314. Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., & Piele, L. J. (2005). Communication research: Strategies and sources. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Scott, R. L. (1993). Dialectical tensions of speaking and silence. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 79, 1–18. Weaver, R. B. III, & Kirtley, M. D. (1995). Listening styles and empathy. Southern Journal of Communication, 60, 131–140. Wood, T. (1993, March). Getting tough interviews. Writer’s Digest, 28–29, 31. 54 Nonprint The film My Dinner with Andre is an extended two-person conversation. How are its characteristics consistent or inconsistent with interviewing? What can we learn about successful interviewing from successful conversation, even if it’s as stylized as this one? A 2007 film titled Interview starred offbeat actor Steve Buscemi, and explored the seamier side of celebrity interviews. A cassette or audio CD selection of Studs Terkel’s radio interviews, Voices of Our Times: Five Decades of Studs Terkel Interviews (St. Paul, MN: Highbridge, 1999), is an excellent resource for interviewers who want to expand their styles beyond what we call the Q&A presumption. Notice, too, how his interviewees embellish their responses with stories, anecdotes, and provocative ideas. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification (Note: [1] The following are literally samples or examples, not a “bank” of questions for instructors to ask students in ready-made exams. We strongly urge all instructors to write their own exams, personalizing the evaluation process for their own students, their own expectations, their own writing styles, and even their own sense of humor. This is especially true in writing essay questions. [2] We suggest that teachers describe in class 55 their specific ground rules and guidelines for student answers to exam questions [and other assignments also, of course]. Rather than repeat ourselves for each chapter’s sample questions, however, our suggested ground rules appear only once here.) Multiple Choice The following questions ask you to choose the best response from five options; consider these choices in the context of interviewing skills, appreciations, and research. 1. The most important person in an interview is: A. the interviewer B. the interviewee C. the person who sets up the interview D. the more prestigious person E. none of the above (*) 2. For the context of interviewing, communication is best defined as: A. a transfer of meaning from one person to another B. the development of shared meaning between persons in a relationship (*) C. an emotional state in which two or more people are fully sympathetic to each other D. when two or more people agree on a given interpretation or course of action E. a relational state in which people like each other 56 3. While hearing is a physiological process, listening is a: A. biological process B. group-centered process C. rational and careful process D. sociological process E. holistic and largely psychological process (*) 4. Punctuation is important to interviewers and interviewees because: A. it describes how they interpret starts and stops, causes and effects (*) B. it will help readers understand the interview better when it’s published C. it refers to the ways interviewers maintain eye contact with interviewees D. it is the study of punctuality in communication, especially the importance of arriving on time for an interview E. punctuation is not particularly important to interview participants, but is crucial for authors 5. Empathic communicators: A. sympathize with others B. are able to identify exactly with what others are experiencing C. both A and B D. fully identify with others E. without leaving their own experience, sense other people’s worlds as the others do (*) 57 True-False/Explain The following sentences make assertions about the nature of interviewing, or about the advisability of certain styles or strategies. For each, decide whether the statement is basically true or basically false — and mark the appropriate blank. Then, if it is true, provide more information or an example for why it is true in about two sentences. If it is false, describe what makes it wrong or inaccurate, and what change of wording could make it into a true statement. Please use full sentences. 6. Interviewing is like conversation, because it usually involves “just talking to people in a spontaneous social way.” T___ F___ Why? 7. A good interviewer is born, not made. T___ F___ Why? 8. Framing should be avoided in interviewing, because it verges on mind reading. T___ F___ Why? 9. Understanding “transaction” means that interviewers and interviewees should consider the ways they influence each other while they’re speaking. T___ F___ Why? 10. Dawn thinks her interview with a prominent civil rights lawyer will help many people when it’s published, but she has to tell a small lie to get the interview before the lawyer 58 leaves for New York. If she considers the ethics of doing this but proceeds anyway, she is likely operating from a teleological ethical system in this case. T___ F___ Why? Identification The following concepts are important in defining areas of understanding and skill improvement in interview situations. For each, write a full sentence or two describing its importance in the context of interviewing (not just what the word might mean in general conversation). 11. Egoism 12. Persuasive interview 13. Deontology 14. Selection interview 15. The significance of the word “inter-view” Essay 59 Respond to each of these questions in two paragraphs or so. Provide relevant examples where appropriate. You can include your own opinions, of course (even to disagree with the text, readings, or me), but make sure you’ve included enough description of class materials to demonstrate that you understand and can apply the appropriate ideas or concepts. (Reminder to teachers: Some teachers like to give students a choice of essay questions — perhaps having them write on two out of three or three out of five questions. Another approach often used is to give students a list of five to 10 essay questions several days before the exam, and guaranteeing that one or more will be on the exam.) 16. Discuss the advantages and the potential disadvantages of considering an interview as a “partnership.” Use concrete and specific examples wherever possible. 17. Explore the concept of framing by (a) defining it as clearly as possible in your own words, and (b) illustrating it either with a real-life incident from your own experience or with a hypothetical situation. Make sure you explain how framing can be important for both interviewer and interviewee. 18. Identify two prominent interviewers you admire from public life (television, radio, local politics, campus). Discuss how they reflect — or fail to reflect — the four qualities of interviewing discussed in this chapter (empathy, honesty, respect, validation). PART ONE: KEY APPRECIATIONS AND SKILLS OF DIALOGUE 60 CHAPTER 2: Before Skills: Appreciations and Habits of Dialogue • The nitty-gritty Chapter 2 explicitly introduces what we term a “skills-plus” approach to interviewing. In it, we would like students to understand that interviewing is an artistic and creative activity that depends as much on what interviewers and interviewees assume and appreciate as on what they are trained to do. Many, if not most, crucial interview decisions are made on the spot; they need to be improvised to fit an unanticipated context, an unexpected emotional reaction from a partner, or a fresh topic that arose serendipitously. We’ve found that students more readily build skills and practice helpful interviewing behaviors if they first realize how successful interviewing is built upon helpful attitudes and a genuine desire to understand another person. Thus, this chapter introduces the appreciations of curiosity, knowledge, diversity, flexibility, and empathy; in “Beyond the Basics,” these factors are integrated with some basic research findings in rules theory and the cooperative principle in conversation. You can make two especially helpful links for students here, relative to their other classes. First, because of its emphasis on diversity, empathy, and pluralistic worldviews, this chapter could be taught almost entirely as a lesson in intercultural understanding (see resource suggestions at the end of this section) should an instructor choose that orientation and supply additional examples. We’ve chosen to integrate cultural issues throughout the book, but teachers who prefer a specific chapter on this topic will find this one readily adaptable. Second, you may want to draw on your students’ experiences in interpersonal or communication 61 theory courses, in which the dynamics of rules, coordinated management of meaning, and conversational discourse are discussed in more depth. This chapter invites ready application from such coursework. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The TOYS box provides a sample interview for analysis. Its purpose is not to ask students whether they identify with one or the other characters, or agree or disagree with them, but to stimulate discussion about the characteristics of dialogue. See if you can encourage students not to discuss this case globally through generalizations; ask them to link their opinions to actual comments and interchanges between Delores Wilson and Michael Van Allen. — The MYD box helps students think about and discuss their own perceptions of a multicultural organization, and how they might be able to understand its dynamics more effectively through interviewing. If you discuss this case in class, you may want to preview the later chapter on research interviewing for students. • Additional activities and discussion questions Here’s a simple 20–30 minute exercise that can illustrate dialogue-oriented interviewing between two people who have different perspectives on a topic that concerns them both: 62 — Tell the class you’d like to be interviewed, press conference style, about your attitudes and practices concerning grading. — Ask for two or three volunteer interviewers; they’ll be seated in the middle of the room with you and one additional empty chair. Other students sit in a semicircle or circle around you and the interviewers. — The empty chair (similar to fishbowl exercises in small-group communication) is for anyone else in class who has a question for you. The person should come to the center, sit until he or she asks the question, and then retire to a seat in the outer circle so that someone else can ask another question. — Most questions will come from your volunteers. Try to answer them enthusiastically and expansively, discussing your preferences, likes and dislikes, optimism for the class, and pet peeves. — Lead the class in a discussion of how well the volunteers and other students kept the focus on your grading attitudes and practices, while still expressing aspects of the volunteers’ personalities and attitudes. For example, did you hear yourself saying things you hadn’t thought of before in those words, things that might be especially helpful for the later cooperation of the class? Finish by complimenting volunteers on their willingness to encounter a difficult topic 63 honestly, and discuss whichever qualities of dialogic communication you found in the interaction. • Additional resources Print This chapter is a particularly appropriate place to have a focused discussion of diversity, the cross-cultural assumptions and challenges of professional interviewing, and other issues of a multicultural society. Consider the following sources: Arendell, T. (1997). Reflections on the researcher-researched relationship: A woman interviewing men. Qualitative Sociology, 20, 341–368. Auletta, K. (1998, April 20). In the company of women. The New Yorker, 72–78. (This interesting article describes Ken Auletta’s interviews with corporate women executives in the communication industry; they discuss recent patterns of male-female talk and power relationships.) Birbeck, D., & Drummond, M. (2005). Interviewing, and listening to the voices of, very young children on body image and perception of self. Early Child Development & Care, 175, 579–596. 64 Denzin, N. K. (2001). The reflexive interview and a performative social science. Qualitative Research, 1, 23–46. Isaacs, W. N. (1993). Taking flight: Dialogue, collective thinking, and organizational learning. Organizational Dynamics, 22, 24–39. Kadushin, A. (1997). The social work interview: A guide for human service professionals (4th ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. (See Chapter 12 for an especially good chapter on cross-cultural interviewing, including sections on interviews involving race and class differences, sexual preference issues, “aged” clients, and children.) Kaufmann, B. J. (1992). Feminist facts: Interview strategies and political subjects in ethnography. Communication Theory, 2, 187–206. Langellier, K. M., & Hall, D. L. (1989). Interviewing women: A phenomenological approach to feminist communication research. In K. Carter & C. Spitzack (Eds.), Doing research on women’s communication: Perspectives on theory and method (pp. 193–220). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Rhodes, P. J. (1994). Race-of-interviewer effects: A brief comment. Sociology, 28, 547– 558. 65 Schuman, H., & Converse, J. (1971). The effects of black and white interviewers on black responses in 1968. Public Opinion Quarterly, 35, 48–68. Nonprint The ABC-TV daytime talk and interview show The View — cohosted by five women, including the famed interviewer Barbara Walters — contains numerous discussions of intercultural issues and their effects on politics, the news, and the arts. Many guests are themselves famous interviewers and newsmakers. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. A definition of communication competence must include: A. knowledge, skill, and motivation (*) B. being nice, being warm, and being human C. respect, genuineness, and empathy D. analysis, critical thinking, and rational judgment E. diversity, flexibility, and compromise 2. Dialogue, as studied in interviewing, is: 66 A. a state that is equally valuable at all times, no matter what the relationship B. a state that is fine for everyday friendships, but impractical in the career setting C. a mutually interactive relationship involving “strangeness” that is changing continually (*) D. a mutually responsible nexus of interlocking demands people make on each other E. another word for two people talking with each other 3. Credibility helps you determine someone’s potential persuasiveness by analyzing: A. listener’s estimates of that person’s expertise and trustworthiness (*) B. the speaker’s personality traits of aggressiveness and intelligence C. a speaker’s intelligence quotient D. the plan a speaker develops to influence other people E. his or her willingness to engage in dialogue 4. A communication rule is usually followed; if it is not, the following usually happens: A. someone tries to teach the person how to follow the communication rule better B. the person who dictated the rule in the first place will get angry C. someone reminds the rule breaker to change his or her behavior to conform to the clearly codified expectations D. nothing overt: communication rules develop through subtle social processes and they are broken often (*) E. some sort of clear-cut penalty for the offender 67 5. Multiculturalism reminds us that: A. cultures cannot be multiplied in a given context without making communication much more ineffective B. other people’s cultural habits and expectations appear to them to be as normal as yours appear to you (*) C. interviewers are not able to communicate effectively across multiple cultural differences D. we must constantly be on the lookout for how other people’s cultural assumptions are wrong E. pluralistic worldviews are impossible in today’s postmodern media environment True-False/Explain 6. Dialogue is mainly a set of techniques we can use to improve organizations. T___ F___ Why? 7. Monologue or monologic speaking is especially important to interviewers, because it demonstrates leadership. T___ F___ Why? 8. In most formal interviews, interviewees tend to control the “resource factors.” T___ F___ Why? 68 9. Flexibility in interviewing involves memorizing a wide range of possible behaviors in order to be ready for them in your partner’s communication. T___ F___ Why? 10. You ask someone in an interview a brief factual question; the answer given is a fiveminute elaboration of how the underlying problem came into existence. The respondent has probably violated the conversational maxim of “manner.” T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. High-flex communicator 12. Empathy 13. Cooperative principle 14. Skills-plus interviewing 15. Pluralistic worldview Essay 69 16. Define the contributions made by curiosity and empathy to effective interviewing. Discuss the relationship between these two “appreciations” for a hypothetical interviewer in an interviewing situation of your own choosing. 17. What is the difference between content knowledge and process knowledge? Describe this distinction in terms of a personal hobby or interest of your own. 18. Define/describe communication reticence, and list three to four ways it could negatively affect an interviewer and three to four ways it could negatively affect an interviewee in an extended information gathering interview. CHAPTER 3: Skillful Listening • The nitty-gritty Listening is the skill at the core of interviewing, the one crucial process that bonds both interviewers and interviewees and is used equally by them both. Listening is the conversational skill that will keep others talking and ensure them that they’re being well understood; further, without effective listening by interviewees, the most skillfully phrased questions miss their mark. Chapter 3 defines listening as an active process with five complementary functions. The material helps students practice a form of listening that not only allows them to understand speakers better, but also demonstrates that 70 understanding more visibly. In “Beyond the Basics,” three more advanced topics of interpersonal theory are related to listening: immediacy influences in face-to-face talk, interpersonal confirmation, and the philosophical implications of listening. If you choose to assign this somewhat difficult material, try to emphasize its important links to other courses in the communication program; by doing so you will stimulate interest in other faculty members’ courses and encourage students to see that theoretical and practical matters are not divorced in the study of communication. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box asks students to examine a doctor-patient interaction, looking for what we term recognition skills (attentiveness to meaning cues) and regulation skills (attentiveness to how a conversation is managed; turn-taking cues, etc.). Is it helpful for the doctor to assume out loud that not seeing the patient for a long time means that he or she has been healthy? Does the doctor do well in specifying meaning when discussing the swelling of the leg? How does the doctor know when to ask this patient for information? — The second TOYS box describes a variant of “listening triads,” and is selfexplanatory. It’s probably a good idea to make a special effort to remind people not to choose stories that are potentially too emotionally involving for them. Even after this caveat, you can expect that a few students who tell stories before the class will become much more emotional than expected and will start to cry. While crying is not a negative occurrence in the classroom, it could be embarrassing for some speakers. 71 — The MYD box presents two situations in which interviewers must be sensitive to nuance and ethics. The first (student interviewing a college president) asks students to think about how they’d check out a potential contradiction in a touchy interview situation — one in which the potential to offend is fairly high. The second (interviewing a KKK member) uses an actual interview to ask students how much, and how, an interviewer’s “real” feelings should be expressed when interviewing someone he or she disagrees with. Is this primarily an ethical issue of honesty or sincerity, or primarily an informational issue of effective interview behavior? Note: It would be possible to role-play either or both of these situations in class, prior to a discussion. • Additional activities and discussion questions A common listening/interviewing exercise challenges students to listen for what is not said in an interview and to use what they do know to infer what they don’t know. It can be used in a variety of ways; it works well to introduce students to names and preferences early in the term (taking one or two entire class periods of 50–75 minutes), and it can also be used as a demonstration performed by several teams of two (less than one class period). • Have a brief discussion with the entire class about what clues in someone’s life situations or behavior give the best insights into their personalities; in other words, in the group’s opinion, which details about a life give you the best clues to knowing who the 72 person is? (Opinions don’t need to be justified.) Then, each person has about three minutes to decide which clues he or she thinks are best, and shape them into notes — a brief interview schedule. • Students break into teams of two, with about five to 10 minutes allotted for each to interview the other about his or her likes and dislikes. • After the interviews, each student has two minutes to introduce the other, while standing behind the interviewee. Any erroneous information can be identified as such by the nonverbal behavior of the interviewee, whose face is seen by the group but can’t be seen by the introducer/interviewer. Then, the rest of the class asks questions of the introducer about the interviewee’s likes and dislikes — things that weren’t covered in the introduction. The introducer has to infer the answers using what he or she knows to be true. This exercise provides good examples of listening beyond the actual details, and apt examples perhaps of overgeneralization and stereotyping, too. Yet it happens in a nonthreatening environment when these things can be discussed more readily. • One variation is to have the introducer speak in the imagined first person when introducing the partner (if Larry introduces Ronette, he says something like, “Hi, my name is Ronette and I come to Loyola from Cincinnati, Ohio. My family was . . .”). This breaks class tension, generates some good-natured smiles, and allows you to make some points about decentering, identification, and empathy, too. 73 • Additional resources Print Beatty, M., & Payne, S. (1984). Listening comprehension as a function of cognitive complexity: A research note. Communication Monographs, 51, 85–89. Haidet, P. (2007). Jazz and the “art” of medicine: Improvisation in the medical encounter. Family Medicine, 5, 164–169. Journal of the International Listening Association contains many relevant articles, oriented toward both research perspectives and practical applications. Check recent issues for trends in the field. Ostermeier, T. H. (1993). Perception of nonverbal cues in dialogic listening in an intercultural interview. Journal of the International Listening Association, 64–75. Taylor, L., et al. (1988). Better interviews: The effects of supervisor training on listening and collaborative skills. Journal of Education Research, 82, 89–95. Wolvin, A. D., & Coakley, C. G. (1991). A survey of the status of listening training in some Fortune 500 corporations. Communication Education, 40, 152–164. 74 Zimmerman, J., & Coyle, V. (1991, March/April). Council: Reviving the art of listening. Utne Reader, 79–85. Nonprint Local television stations often schedule interviews in which celebrities visiting a town for a show or lecture are questioned by anchors or news reporters who are only minimally familiar with a given celebrity’s best-seller, new CD, play, or scientific research. (Few have the time for the full-fledged research that supports national interviewers like Charlie Rose, whose show is carried by more than 200 PBS stations.) These local interviews, often as brief as three to five minutes, tend to appear in early morning or noontime news broadcasts. They are good places to look for examples of sloppy listening or particularly focused listening from local TV personalities. Warning: Make sure you avoid snide or derisive comments about these professionals, who are asked to perform under a great deal of pressure. It might be wise to try to find both positive and negative examples from the same interviewer(s). Remember too that communication students often intern at these stations and later may interact with television personalities personally. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. The kind of listening that journalists are most likely to use in writing their stories is: 75 A. appreciative B. therapeutic C. salutary D. comprehensive (*) E. conceptual 2. The best statement about the relationship between immediacy and confirmation is that: A. there is no difference; these are synonyms for the same process B. immediacy, verbal and nonverbal closeness, can lead to feelings of confirmation (*) C. confirmation is the process by which communicators know they have been understood accurately, and this rarely happens immediately D. immediacy is only nonverbal, while confirmation is only verbal E. confirmation is only nonverbal, while immediacy is only verbal 3. Listening can be defined as: A. the physiological process of communicators hearing sounds and noting them B. the active process through which communicators process stimuli, interpret them as messages, and use them to construct meanings (*) C. the active process by which communicators remember what they are told D. the interpretive process by which meanings are transferred accurately from person to person in conversational situations E. sensitive and humane involvement in another person’s troubles, in which the listener is identifying with the other person emotionally 76 4. Sometimes, messages that aren’t wanted or necessary interfere with your ability to listen to what you want to focus on. These unwanted and distracting messages are known as: A. communication debris B. communication noise (*) C. communication disconfirmations D. allogenic dysfunctions E. bad metamessages 5. The skill of critical listening known as “clarification” is most similar to: A. paraphrasing B. active listening C. I-messages D. clearing E. both A and B (*) True-False/Explain 6. We don’t just listen to other people’s speaking; we also speak to their listening. T___ F___ Why? 77 7. Discriminative listening should be avoided because discrimination against others (for instance, for their cultural differences) ought to be eliminated in a pluralistic society. T___ F___ Why? 8. Of the five major listening types, appreciative listening is least likely to be practical for interviewers. T___ F___ Why? 9. Although some people think of listening solely as a cognitive process, the concept of listening also involves behaviors that can be seen by others. T___ F___ Why? 10. Because they are collecting more experiences, most adults become better listeners as they get older. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Disqualifying response 12. Surplus of seeing 13. The relationship between I-messages and you-messages 14. Self-fulfilling prophecy 78 15. Ad hominem fallacy Essay 16. Write a brief description of what you’d teach if you were in charge of a one-day workshop for teachers (or managers) called “Improving Immediacy Behaviors in Interviewing.” 17. Why — and how — does listening create a “space” for dialogue? What is the nature of this space? 18. How do you know when a listener is engaged in what this chapter calls “active listening?” Define the term as you understand it, and draft a five- to 10-item checklist for observing active listening statements and behaviors that you could use to analyze a videotaped interview. CHAPTER 4: Skillful Questioning • The nitty-gritty With Chapters 2 and 3 setting the stage, students should be prepared to apply what they’ve learned so far to the art of questioning. Obviously, questioning is at the heart of 79 interviewing, but the requisite, complementary skills of listening and framing should be reinforced as Chapter 4 unfolds. The mechanics of constructing and asking questions receive thorough treatment here. These are the tools of interviewing, and knowledge of their uses and usefulness is essential. The chapter, however, also covers the limits of questions; they don’t always work as anticipated. It’s important, then, to stress flexibility in the unpredictable give-and-take of questioning. Another important feature of the chapter is its discussion of the reasons people feel inclined to answer questions — and the reasons why they feel disinclined. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box suggests an analysis of an interview between a reporter and a scientist. This is clearly an interview opportunity gone awry primarily because of an illprepared reporter, but many such interviews can be salvaged by carefully phrased and more specific questions. Which of your students has the best suggestions for rescuing both parties from this embarrassing situation? While it’s tempting to single out the hapless reporter for criticism, what could the doctor do to help sharpen the questions? Which positive directions could the interview take from this point on? — The second TOYS box asks students to identify and analyze a published or taped interview for the types, order, and perceived effectiveness of its questions. You may want to provide the class with a handout of periodicals that often run interviews. Among popular magazines, the most famous interview feature involving celebrities is 80 undoubtedly found in Playboy every month. A journal in communication, Text & Performance Quarterly, has published a number of remarkable interviews with storytellers and other artist/communicators. Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Parade, and Reader’s Digest publish interviews occasionally. In addition, many trade publications and newsletters such as Leadership Excellence feature interviews with successful practitioners. — The two MYD situations involve campus-interviewing dilemmas. The first hypothetical situation asks respondents to consider what needs to be researched in order to frame a sequence of initial ticklish questions . . . which keep open both the possibility of guilt and the possibility of innocence. The second situation would be a good discussion starter for how to respond to ticklish, illegal, awkward, or unwanted questions. • Additional activities and discussion questions It’s easier for students to glimpse the structure of questioning through analyzing a written document or transcript of an interview. Published interviews, if students understand that they have usually been edited extensively and may not closely resemble what was actually said, will suffice. In some cases, the interviewer starts with a broadbased approach illustrating a funnel sequence. Typically, probe questions are easily identified and explained, and the interviewer might shift a couple of times to readily identifiable primary questions that introduce new general topics. You should be able to 81 find published interviews that illustrate interests you know will engage your students or that will illustrate selected concepts or skills. • Additional resources Print Jones, J. H. (1997, August 25 & September 1). Dr. yes. The New Yorker, 98–113. (This article investigates the personal life and professional contributions of controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. In one section [106–107] Jones discusses Kinsey’s interviewing style, which involved an extensive use of direct, common vernacular and — unusual for attitude and surveys — leading questions.) Roter, D., & Hall, J. A. (2006). Doctors talking with patients/patients talking with doctors: Improving communication in medical visits. (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger. (See especially p. 174, “A Patient’s Guide to Asking Questions.”) Smith, R. C., & Hoppe, R. B. (1991). The patient’s story: Integrating the patient- and physician-centered approaches to interviewing. Annals of Internal Medicine, 115, 470– 477. (Smith & Hoppe are particularly interested in the effects of questions.) Sudman, S., & Bradburn, N. M. (1983). Asking questions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 82 Nonprint Press conferences on radio or television are excellent sources for studying the wording of questions, especially how the questioner’s assumptions might lie buried in the language of a question. They are examples of broadcast interviews that do not fit the usual interview modes and protocols discussed in Chapter 12, in that they tend to be more spontaneous and contentious. The questioners often have idiosyncratic or politicized stances, and interviewees often have a public stance on an issue to explain or defend. Transcripts and video recordings of press conferences, particularly those involving officials in federal agencies and departments, can be accessed online at office government Web sites, such as www.state.gov (U.S. Department of State) for the daily press briefing. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. Supportive questions: A. direct and advance an interview by bolstering, setting up, or following up primary questions (*) B. help break the ice at the earliest stages of an interview C. require interviewers to provide interviewees with special support in terms of explanation and background to the question asked 83 D. provide a “crutch” of support so interviewees will be more likely to speak openly E. help interviewers gain the support of an interviewee before asking particularly difficult questions 2. A behaviorally based question: A. reflects the behavior of the questioner B. asks the respondent to describe or relate a behavior (*) C. seeks to determine the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behavior D. gauges the respondent’s emotional stability E. both C and D 3. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of open-ended questions? A. help reveal the importance of the question to a respondent B. encourage someone to talk through a problem C. allow people to determine the content and depth of answers D. reduce the pressure of answering (*) E. encourage a conversational flow to interviews 4. A loaded question is one that is potentially: A. overly wordy and complicated B. loaded with judgmental, potentially offensive language C. accusatory in its tone and content D. both B and C (*) 84 E. heavy or “loaded” because of its esoteric nature 5. Confirmative probes help an interviewer to: A. confirm suspicions B. determine deception in an interviewee C. test the accuracy or completeness of information (*) D. set a time, place, and conditions for an interview E. confirm whether there’s been a breakdown in communication True-False/Explain 6. Direct questions should be avoided in interviewing. T___ F___ Why? 7. It’s difficult to explore motives and attitudes with closed-ended questions. T___ F___ Why? 8. There is a difference between toughness and courage in asking questions. T___ F___ Why? 9. Ambiguous words are usually clearly apparent in communication. T___ F___ Why? 10. “Informed consent” is like a Miranda warning for interviewees. T___ F___ Why? 85 Identification 11. Wait time 12. Wrap-up question 13. Euphemism 14. Inflection 15. Double-barreled question Essay 16. When might you ask a hypothetical question? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such questions. 17. Why is empathy important in terms of asking questions? 18. What is the role of an interviewer’s communication values in the asking of questions? CHAPTER 5: Skillful Framing 86 • The nitty-gritty Framing is the skill that helps people use what they learn as interviewers and interviewees. Effective listeners and speakers generate for each other a wide range of insights and information — all of which should be understood in context. The skill of framing helps provide, and illumine, this context. Many interview misunderstandings develop as a result of interviewer and interviewee bringing different frames to the interaction, and not being able to imagine alternative interpretations; indeed, they may not believe they are framing at all, but simply reacting to “reality.” Unfortunately, framing is rarely taught directly as an interview skill, although many problems of communication are attributable directly to ineffective framing. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box presents an interview excerpt designed to help students analyze framing and reframing opportunities. How do counselors and clients, for example, bring different expectations to their conversations? Preview Chapter 11 for students, in which helping interviews are discussed in more depth. — The second TOYS box asks students to record a celebrity profile interview and later practice delayed note taking. This activity will involve students’ memories, as well as their abilities to note important details in clear form. One useful variant is to ask students 87 to do the activity in dyads, with each partner seeing the same recording, and then noting crucial details, emotional tone, follow-up topics, and quotes separately. They then can compare notes in order to learn a valuable lesson about how persons frame differently. Another variant is to play only one recording for the class and have all class members practice delayed note taking at the same time; then the class as a whole can discuss the different perceptions of what was important, or do so in breakout groups. — The MYD box challenges students to reconsider three important issues in the chapter from the standpoint of their personal opinions: (1) At what point should someone metacommunicate in order to clarify the interaction? (2) Which recording policy is most fair for a reporter interested in getting the news for his or her readers? (Try to keep students focused on comparing these three specific newspaper policies, rather than letting them discuss ethics in general or complain about news bias or other peripheral issues.) (3) How can interviewers and interviewees become more self-aware about their tendencies toward multiculturalist language assumptions or linguistic conservatism? If you discuss this issue in class, you might want to stress that the question about interviewing in Catholic churches involves far more than attitudes about Catholicism; students should consider how much they believe they should be able to adapt to the different language assumptions of those they interview. • Additional activities and discussion questions 88 Show the class a video recording or provide a transcript of the famous George Bush–Dan Rather interview during the presidential campaign of 1988. In this interview broadcast on the CBS Evening News, Bush insisted on being interviewed live, so he could counter what he assumed to be Rather’s strategy of asking about Bush’s alleged role in the Iran-Contra controversy. As both men exchanged accusations, what had started ostensibly as an “interview” about the campaign turned into something else. Ask students what they believe it became, and why the communication developed as it did. Of course, part of what transpired was impression management deluxe: Bush argued that Rather never intended to interview him fairly, but instead plotted an “ambush”; in an alternative frame, Rather and CBS later asserted that Bush and his advisors plotted to use the live nature of television to pick a fight, demonstrating how Bush is really tough and combative in contrast to his supposed previous image of “wimp.” Ask students how the concept of differential framing helps us understand the interview in a helpful way . . . and whether any interview could be understood more thoroughly by adopting a framing perspective. Try to mention during this discussion that the role of the journalist, discussed in detail in Chapter 6, sometimes requires that interviews not be polite or pleasant. • Additional resources Print 89 Burgoon, J. K., Buller, D. B., Floyd, K., & Grandpre, J. (1996). Deceptive realities: Send receiver, and observer perspectives in deceptive conversations. Communication Research, 23(6), 724–748. deShazer, S., & Lipchik, E. (1984). Frames and reframing. Family Therapy Collections, 11, 88–97. Dougherty, T. W., Turban, D. B., & Callender, J. C. (1994). Confirming first impressions in the employment interview: A field study of interviewer behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 659–665. Ensink, T. (2003). The frame analysis of research interviews: Social categorization and footing in interview discourse. In H. Van den Berg, M. Wetherell, & H. HoutkoopStreenstra (Eds.), Analyzing race talk: Multidisciplinary approaches to the interview (pp. 156–177). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper Colophon. Graham, E. E., Barbato, C. A., & Perse, E. M. (1993). The interpersonal communication motives model. Communication Quarterly, 41, 172–186. 90 Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (1995). The active interview. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (See especially Chapters 3 and 4 for discussions relevant to framing.) Nonprint Few demonstrations of framing are as effective as the old Abbott and Costello comedy routine, “Who’s on First?” This conversation, which is probably among the most famous comedy bits of our century, is available on many collections of vintage radio, and there are even some versions that were filmed and are now available on video. Students track well on an audio recording excerpt of about three to five minutes. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. Framing is an important skill because: A. communication is nonverbal and interesting B. communication is patterned but interpretable in different ways (*) C. communication is a rational process of inquiry D. communication is an internal process of discerning correct meanings E. communication can make or break a business deal 2. In an interview with a clear frame: 91 A. participants are confused about how to interpret things B. participants are fully sympathetic with others’ views C. participants have about the same definition of the situation (*) D. participants know exactly what they want E. participants are all concerned with impression management 3. Armin is constantly ordered around by his rude roommate, but because he values a peaceful home, he says nothing. His behavior represents: A. a pathological condition B. assertiveness C. poor framing D. appropriate framing E. acquiescence (*) 4. The concept of acceptance-oriented language means that: A. you choose terms with sensitivity to the framing habits of different cultural groups (*) B. you show you like the person you interview by the language you choose C. you try to be neutral at all times when you interview others D. as interviewee, you try not to say anything that could be interpreted as political by others E. you don’t have to consider multicultural issues, because all people are equal 5. In framing, an “account”: 92 A. is an aggressive statement from an interviewee, in response to an aggressive question B. offers an explicit explanation of your own frame, to avoid misunderstanding (*) C. cognitively compares the costs and benefits of the proposed answer with other possible answers D. reframes the question E. none of the above True-False/Explain 6. Interview frames and picture frames have nothing in common. T___ F___ Why? 7. Breaking the frame means that you refuse to participate any more in the current communication relationship. T___ F___ Why? 8. Theorizing abstractly about framing problems while you’re engaged in an interview is usually an ineffective way to communicate. T___ F___ Why? 9. A metamessage is a message that tells listeners how to interpret other messages. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Contextualizing 93 12. Essence quotes 13. Archiving 14. Probe notes 15. Political correctness Essay 16. You have secured an interview with LeBron James, who has agreed to set aside an hour to talk with you. You hope to write a feature based on this interview for a regional magazine. You do your research into James’s basketball and advertising career, but as the time draws nearer, you get nervous about how you’ll take notes. Write a brief essay describing your potential choices for note taking, and why each would be appropriate or inappropriate for this situation. 17. Accurate note taking can ensure interviewers get the interviewee’s statements correctly recorded, but it can be valuable for many more reasons, too. Explain at least three additional positive or helpful results of note taking for interviewers. 94 18. What do you believe is the strongest argument in favor of the position this chapter terms “linguistic conservatism,” in the context of interviewing? What is the strongest argument against it? Discuss this as a framing issue, demonstrating you are aware of the range of issues in this controversy; feel free to take a position, but your answer will be evaluated by the depth of your understanding of the controversy itself, not what you think about it. PART TWO; PRACTICAL CONTEXTS OF INTERVIEWING CHAPTER 6: Interviews in Journalism • The nitty-gritty The journalistic interview stresses the ability to acquire information accurately and completely and then be able to communicate its essence to a wider audience. Journalists depend on interviews as a principal method of both defining and collecting news; the public, in turn, relies on news interviews to know what is going on and, ultimately, to decide what is worth knowing and acting upon. Different orientations influence the way journalists interview, but the stereotype is the abrasive, intrusive character often depicted in television shows and films. The chapter discusses interviewing in the special context of journalism, but the material and issues covered also apply to anyone who must engage in information gathering and dissemination as part of his or her assignments; that point should be emphasized at the beginning and end of the chapter. 95 • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The TOYS box covers two activities. One has students critiquing stories for missing details or unanswered questions that readers would naturally need or want to know. You might want to go through this exercise yourself to help students if they have trouble finding the “readers’ questions.” The second activity is an exploration of accurate recall and note taking. One insight that can emerge from this activity (beyond its obvious skillbuilding contributions) is an appreciation of the complexity of the journalist’s task even among those who will not be reporters or editors. — The MYD box — especially in its first two scenarios — opens up important areas of journalistic ethics that are subtler than some students associate with the term “ethics.” Although many assume ethical matters are limited to questions of purposeful deceit or distortion, the “Sherry Johnson” story asks students to take the role of a reporter in choosing who to interview and what to ask when emotions are high and privacy issues are involved. The “Mayor Dooley” story places in question the very definition of what a “quote” is, and how much control a powerful person should exercise over news stories affecting them. In a related question, how deferential should a reporter be when questioning a celebrity like Pete Rose? Although it’s interesting to critique someone else’s performance, this kind of question challenges students to decide what they would do differently and why. 96 • Additional activities and discussion questions — Go to www.whitehouse.gov for transcripts of the latest presidential press conference. Analyze the questions asked by reporters for such factors as conciseness, clarity, and effectiveness. If it’s a typical presidential press conference, the questions will display flaws in their wording and content. You might want to point out that press conferences usually are considered pseudo news events “managed” by the White House to shield the president from tough questioning. Nonetheless, the presidential press conference yields news and reflects the difficulties of interviewing a well-prepared world leader in a controlled communication environment. — Have students discuss the following quotation from newspaper reporter and columnist Molly Ivins’s 1991 best-seller, Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? (New York: Random House): Reporters tend to be people people. It helps if you’re an extrovert, but it’s not necessary. I have frequently been amazed, when taking a colleague along to a meeting of radicals or blacks, to find my colleague actually afraid of such people. I find it absurd and wrong when reporters are ill at ease with people, just plain people, who happen not to be like them. There are reporters who simply can’t deal with anyone who’s not white, college-educated, middle-class. I’m not sure whether that’s sad or funny, but I know it doesn’t make for good journalism. I don’t know how you learn to relate to people — listen to them, I suppose. Spend 97 enough time around very different kinds of people so that they don’t strike you as odd. (p. 238) • Additional resources Print Anderson, R., & Killenberg, G. M. (1997). Listening in journalism: All the news (we’ve heard about) that’s fit to print. In M. Purdy & D. Borisoff (Eds.), Listening in everyday life: A personal and professional approach (2nd ed., pp. 311–332). Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Arico, S. L. (1986). Breaking the ice: An in-depth look at Oriana Fallaci’s interview techniques. Journalism Quarterly, 587–593. Borden, S. L. (1993). Empathic listening: The interviewer’s betrayal. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 8, 219–226. Fredin, E. S. (1984). Assessing sources: Interviewing, self-monitoring, and attribution theory. Journalism Quarterly, 61, 866–883. McGlone, M. (2005). Quoted out of context: contextomy and its consequences. Journal of Communication, 55, 330–346. 98 McManus, K. (1992, November). If you absolutely, positively have to talk to real people — Here are some tips on coaxing out good “person in the street” interviews. ASNE Bulletin, 18–19. Stark, K. (2001). What’s right/wrong with journalism ethics research? Journalism Studies, 2, 133–152. Starobin, P. (1995, March/April). A generation of vipers: Journalists and the new cynicism. Columbia Journalism Review, 33, 25–32. Stocking, S. H., & Gross, P. H. (1989). How do journalists think? A proposal for the study of cognitive bias in newsmaking. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills. (A particularly interesting source that describes how journalists develop implicit cognitive “theories” — in effect, persistent frames — that they use in deciding what is newsworthy.) Ziemann, S. L. (1998, June 19). He shows cops the media aren’t the enemy. Chicago Tribune, pp. 2–2, 2–10. (A feature article describing how a former television reporter and anchor, Rick Rosenthal, trains police officers how to answer journalists’ questions more effectively. The title suggests the theme of the workshops Rosenthal conducts.) 99 Nonprint Bill Moyers’s “World of Ideas” series is a treasure trove of interviews with an array of noted philosophers, scientists, writers, historians, and artists. You can find a complete or partial set in the audio-video collections at many university libraries. Another option is the archived interviews of Charlie Rose, available through Google video or www.charlierose.com. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. In their professional preparation and education, journalists primarily learn interviewing: A. on the job, through trial and error (*) B. through extensive in-house workshops and seminars C. by classroom study of the research and theory of interviewing D. from mentors E. from editors and coaches in the newsroom 2. A reporter would typically use a background interview to: A. dig up dirt on, or investigate a political or public figure 100 B. conduct a “background” check on newsmakers C. acquire a basic understanding of a subject as an aid in reporting on an unfamiliar topic (*) D. decide whether a prospective interviewee would perform effectively when questioned on live television or radio E. gather details for a personality profile 3. According to the textbook definition, “off the record” means the: A. interviewee won’t be identified by name in the story B. interviewer won’t record or take notes of the conversation C. interviewee’s comments won’t be published or broadcast in any form (*) D. interviewee will discuss only unofficial details E. interviewer will not directly quote the interviewee, but may attribute a thought or attitude indirectly to him or her 4. Janet Malcolm helped the journalism profession focus on its interviewing behavior when she: A. suggested in an article that many reporters take advantage of the people they interview (*) B. blamed television and Hollywood for stereotyping reporters as rude and insensitive C. accused politicians and public figures of creating an adversarial relationship in dealing with reporters 101 D. asked a presidential candidate what he would do if someone raped and murdered his wife E. published a popular book in which celebrity interviewees attacked the methods of reporters 5. A movement in American journalism that has helped stress the importance of communication between reporters and the people they cover is called: A. immersion reporting B. in-depth reporting C. people-to-people journalism D. public journalism (*) E. compassionate journalism True-False/Explain 6. An interviewer’s use of hidden recorders is ethical practice in journalism. T___ F___ Why? 7. Reporters and those they interview cannot escape an adversarial relationship. T___ F___ Why? 8. Reporters ought to give interviewees an opportunity to prepare by revealing some key questions they intend to ask. T___ F___ Why? 102 9. A news story belongs to the interviewer, not to the interviewee. T___ F___ Why? 10. Reviewing a story with interviewees prior to publication or broadcast is forbidden by current ethical standards in journalism. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Sound bite 12. Not for attribution 13. Janet Malcolm 14. Delayed note taking 15. Personality profile Essay 16. What do you think James Fallows means when he says journalists should allow “themselves to be surprised by new evidence”? 103 17. Take a position on this observation: “Journalism is largely a by-product of communication by and between people.” 18. From an interviewee’s perspective, discuss what you think constitutes ethical interview behavior on a reporter’s part. CHAPTER 7: Interviews in Social Science and Humanistic Research • The nitty-gritty Chapter 7 highlights the learning function of interviewing in a very specific way. Social science and humanistic researchers want to know more about the human condition so they can better adapt political solutions to social problems and better enable people to understand their own living conditions. With this understanding, we all become better equipped as decision makers. Research, no matter how specific or unrelated to a given student’s (or a given teacher’s!) interests, adds to our store of cultural knowledge and helps us act more responsibly with each other. This chapter surveys basic issues in quantitative and qualitative research and considers four basic types of interview research — surveys, focus groups, oral histories, and ethnographies. We suggest that you use this opportunity to encourage students to: — understand that research is not something done only by ivory tower intellectuals or elitists; 104 — understand that as responsible organizational specialists, they will be expected to advise others on communication research; and — understand that no matter how trivial a single study might appear when taken out of context, it can make a valuable contribution to social awareness when combined with other studies. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box is a simple exercise probing students’ ability to phrase a focused, specific, and clear question. Without this ability, survey respondents will answer a researcher’s questions with widely varying referents in mind. Remind students that researchers can never control respondents’ reactions directly (some imprecision is built into language itself), but they can attempt to minimize misinterpretation through careful language choices. Recognizing possible ambiguity, and how it invites divergent responses, is a crucial questioning skill first introduced in Chapter 4. — The second TOYS box presents a hypothetical excerpt from a student’s oral history interview. Probe students’ abilities to discern how it is different from, and similar to, how journalists interview. At the very least, they should be able to see that, while there are many similarities (such as thoroughness, preparation, and probe questioning), the oral history interviewer grants and encourages far wider latitude of memory and narrative to the interviewee. Audrey helps Leon to open or close topics, so that his story emerges relatively slowly over time, and ideally without external pressures or demands. 105 — The third TOYS box is an actual experience in oral history. You may want to incorporate this activity as a formal assignment in your syllabus. — The MYD box illustrates the pragmatics and ethics of communicating with those whose attitudes and behaviors are researched. The first case expands upon an example mentioned earlier in the chapter, and it asks students to test their understandings of the ethics of informed and implied consent. The next two cases simply allow students to personalize research topics to their own interests and career goals, helping them sharpen their understanding of the chapter. Finally, we present another scenario in which a student can interview an interviewer — one in which a strong opinion is asserted and the reader must determine how or whether to respond. • Additional activities and discussion questions — Survey research. Have teams of two students each decide on a topic about which they’re curious (for example: class attitudes about a proposed tuition hike; evaluation of this year’s football or basketball team; or any current campus controversy). Then, each team should review Gallup’s quintamensional question sequence for surveys, and write their own schedule in which they adapt the quintamensional sequence into precisely worded questions. This could be a graded written activity, or it could simply be designed to set up a class discussion about the rigors of survey research. Another alternative would 106 be to have the team follow through on five to 10 actual interviews based upon the schedule they construct. — Focus group research. Have students interview marketing or advertising professors who have done focus group research; these specialists could be asked about the advantages and disadvantages of such studies, as well as the potential abuses and misunderstandings associated with focus group research. An alternative would be to have students or teams of students read and evaluate critically one or more focus group studies; for example, what procedures guided the ways moderators asked questions, generated new topics, created transitions between topics, probed for more specific responses, and so forth. — Oral history research. See the sample syllabus for a description of one such assignment, involving a sequence of student interviews with a single person from the community (not a campus faculty, staff, or administration representative). — Ethnographic research. Because these studies typically involve intense participation if not immersion in a different cultural setting, it is difficult to structure ethnography directly into a limited class activity or assignment. Teachers have several options: Guest speakers can stimulate excellent discussions about the methodological choices of ethnographers; students can interview a campus’s famous anthropologist or sociologist who specializes in this research; the teacher can lead the class in a hypothetical planning session in which a design for an ethnographic study is devised. (One example: “None of 107 us is familiar with the culture of a Florida retirement community. If our class were given a grant of $50,000 to study the communication patterns of one such residential complex, how would we go about it? What decisions would have to be made about the researchers’ role[s] in the study? What pitfalls should we be sure to avoid? What kinds of interviews should we be doing?”) • Additional resources Print Arendell, T. (1997). Reflections on the researcher-researched relationship: A woman interviewing men. Qualitative Sociology, 20, 341–368. Burgess, B. (1988). Conversations with a purpose: The ethnographic interview in educational research. Studies in Qualitative Methodology, 1, 137–155. Conrad, F. G., & Schober, M. F. (Eds.). (2008). Envisioning the survey interview of the future. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Conrad, M. F., & Coiner, T. (2007). Bringing features of human dialogue to web surveys. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 165–188. 108 Devault, M. (1990). Talking and listening from women’s standpoint: Feminist strategies for interviewing and analysis. Social Problems, 37(1), 96–116. Hansen, A. A. (1994). A riot of voices: Racial and ethnic variables in interactive oral history interviewing. In E. M. McMahan & K. L. Rogers (Eds.), Interactive oral history interviewing (pp. 107–137). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Krysan, M., & Couper, M. P. (2003). Race in the live and virtual interview: Racial deference, social desirability, and activation effects in attitude surveys. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 364–383. Lederman, L. C. (1990). Assessing educational effectiveness: The focus group interview as a technique for data collection. Communication Education, 39, 117–127. Varallo, S. M., Ray, E. B., & Ellis, B. H. (1998). Speaking of incest: The research interview as social justice. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 26, 254–271. Williams, A. (1997). Young people’s beliefs about intergenerational communication: An initial cross-cultural comparison. Communication Research, 24, 370–393. Yow, V. R. (1994). Recording oral history: A practical guide for social scientists. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 109 Nonprint Oral History Society, www.ohs.org.uk. This Web site features a Q&A about oral history and provides ethical guidelines for those doing oral histories, among other resource materials. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. A sampling of all members of a given population is called a: A. universe B. stratified random sample C. convenience (or available) sample D. census (*) E. probability sample 2. Qualitative research focuses on: A. observable, measurable data B. quality-based information rather than information of questionable value C. human experiences that characterize and affect social action (*) D. surveys of political and social attitudes E. studies that have predictive value 110 3. A focus group is best described as a: A. team responsible for developing a research questionnaire B. collection of individuals used by researchers to determine preferences or attitudes (*) C. survey sample drawn from a select group of respondents, through a “focusing procedure” D. unit within a research institution that is assigned a particular task E. collection of politically active people used to engage in a discussion with candidates 4. The quintamensional sequence of surveying helps researchers: A. determine how much respondents know or have thought about a subject (*) B. measure multiple attitudes on a given subject C. collect demographic information D. introduce respondents to particularly sensitive subjects E. zero in on deception 5. Ethnography can be defined as: A. encountering strange or alien cultural worlds and making sense of them (*) B. participating in autobiographical interviewing C. collection and interpretation of oral history interview findings D. gathering data systematically through ethical quantitative research E. studying and interviewing people in geographic settings 111 True-False/Explain 6. Self-administered surveys generally don’t work as well as telephone surveys. T___ F___ Why? 7. In research projects, validity is valued more than reliability. T___ F___ Why? 8. Implied consent in research doesn’t require a signed agreement from respondents. T___ F___ Why? 9. Postmodernists tend to see knowledge as “social construction.” T___ F___ Why? 10. A member check is a way of ensuring accuracy in ethnography. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Literature review 12. Studs Terkel 13. Local knowledge 14. Over-rapport 112 15. Note set Essay 16. Explain how both vertical and horizontal dimensions apply to oral history interviews. 17. Elliot Mishler writes about the need to “empower respondents.” What does he mean? How does it relate to the tasks of a research interviewer? Discuss a hypothetical research situation in which respondents are empowered as Mishler would suggest. 18. What principles should apply in wording questions for surveys? (Note: You do not have to recall the exact terms in order from the textbook list, but should be able to discuss the basic ideas underlying them.) CHAPTER 8: Interviews for Employee Selection • The nitty-gritty Of all the chapters, students will find Chapter 8 the most familiar and, perhaps, the most relevant in the short term. Nearly everyone in your class will have firsthand experience with a selection interview of some sort; many eventually will move into jobs that include responsibilities for selecting employees or applicants. You should anticipate 113 that students will approach the chapter with preconceived attitudes based on limited, casual exposure. This is why we open with — and reinforce — the point that you can’t “just be yourself,” relying on common sense, in selection interviews. The practical advice offered to counteract this tendency is to “get out of yourself.” Ample time should be devoted to exploring this concept. Chapter 8 also integrates the complementary roles and perspectives of both interviewer and interviewee, which other texts address in separate chapters. This makes it a somewhat longer reading assignment than other chapters, but not unmanageably so; if you want to break down the discussion over several days, we’d still recommend that you ask the class to read the entire chapter before the first class discussion — and then, perhaps, reassign smaller sections for specific class periods. Special note on conflicting advice students often hear: Teaching this course unit is probably not the place to assert with certainty that a student’s Uncle Will and Aunt Marsha are “wrong” in their advice (unless it is truly bizarre). Neither is it the place to assert with certainty that there is only one best way to interview or be interviewed. Instead, a skills-plus approach would suggest you help students clarify choices for themselves while still providing guidelines that reflect contemporary research. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box places students in the role of critic. Instead of presenting an ideal case, it asks them to examine a real employment interview schedule in terms of its inner workings, as well as how it could be adapted or improved. They should ideally react by comparing the schedule to chapter concepts, rather than by simply saying what they like 114 or don’t like about it. In a follow-up exercise, students will be following explicit guidelines in order to write their own interview schedule. — The second TOYS box invites students to draft a resume and use it in role-play situations. Among the interesting points that often emerge will be the ethically ambiguous dilemmas where applicants are tempted to beef up an image with fancy labels or with truth-stretching. Concerning the logistical decisions of preparing a resume (one page or two? what color paper? which typeface is best?), teachers might want to check with their campus’s career centers to determine the resume-related advice seniors are receiving there. If possible, coordinate your advice with the center’s guidelines. If you cannot do so in good conscience, at least prepare clear reasons why you disagree and acknowledge that the center’s staff has reasonable explanations for their differing advice. Otherwise, the result is student confusion. — The third TOYS box describes an activity similar to one of the graded assignments from the sample syllabus. This could be an individual or a small-group exercise. — The MYD box first asks students to consider the ethics and pragmatic implications of asking applicants about other interviewing they might be doing — and then turns the exercise around to inquire about a helpful answer to such an inquiry. Here and elsewhere, use such situations as double-edged problem-solving opportunities, not places to prescribe answers for students. In another situation, students consider the dynamics of stress interviewing. Finally, a case situation of cross-cultural interviewing lets students 115 discuss possible solutions together. Student reactions to this case will probably open the door for you to discuss the relationship between legal and ethical responsibilities of interviewers, as well as how interviewees could react verbally to awkward intercultural interviewing situations. • Additional activities and discussion questions This chapter warns against the simplistic advice to “be yourself.” However, are there ways applicants ought to concentrate on “being themselves”? What are those ways? — Have students role-play a situation in which they decline a job offer tactfully (perhaps because it involves travel; because its job description is so broad; because the salary is disappointing). Variant: Students could write a letter requesting an additional week to consider an offer. Variant: Students could write a letter thanking the interviewer for an informative and interesting interview. See John D. Shingleton’s Successful Interviewing for College Seniors (Lincolnwood, IL: VGM Career Horizons, 1996). — Help students in various subdisciplines of communication (e.g., organizational communication, communication technology, rhetoric, public relations, advertising, journalism) develop comprehensive lists of skills they’ve developed through their coursework, internships, student activities, and volunteer work. • Additional resources 116 Print Anderson, N. R. (1991). Decision making in the graduate selection interview: An experimental investigation. Human Relations, 44, 403–417. Ayres, J., Keereetaweep, T., Chen, P-E., & Edwards, P. A. (1998). Communication apprehension and employment interviews. Communication Education, 47, 1–17. Dipboye, R. L. (1992). Selection interviews: Process perspectives. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western. Duhe, S. F., & Zukowski, L. A. (1997). Radio-TV journalism curriculum: First jobs and career preparation. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 52, 4–15. Engler-Parish, P. G., & Millar, F. E. (1989). An exploratory relational control analysis of the employment-screening interview. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 53, 30– 51. Halvorson, S. (1997). Interviewing: Role playing to help understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Speech Communication Teacher, 11, 1–3. 117 Jones, D. B., & Pinkney, J. W. (1989). An exploratory assessment of the sources of jobinterviewing anxiety in college students. Journal of College Student Development, 30, 553–560. Joyce, A. (2005, January 16). Job hunting in a family way. Washington Post, p. F1. Kirkwood, W. G., & Ralston, S. M. (1996). Ethics and teaching employment interviewing. Communication Education, 45, 167–179. Ralston, S. M., & Kirkwood, W. G. (1995). Overcoming managerial bias in employment interviewing. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 23, 75–92. Ralston, S. M., Kirkwood, W. G., & Burant, P. (2003). Helping interviewees tell their stories. Business Communication Quarterly, 66, 8–22. Robinson, M. D., Johnson, J. T., & Shields, S. A. (1995). On the advantages of modesty: The benefits of a balanced self-presentation. Communication Research, 22, 575–591. Nonprint The Black Collegian Online: The career site for students of color, www.blackcollegian.com. (Tips, advice, and resources from the perspective of minority job seekers.) 118 Many recent textbooks and training manuals in business communication are accompanied by video recordings demonstrating helpful and unhelpful approaches to the employmentselection interview. In addition, many campus career centers have video collections of exemplary employment interviews from the standpoint of applicants, and your library or media center might have other training videos that will be helpful in demonstrating personnel interviewer behavior. If you choose to use one of these in class, be sure to preview these interviews carefully to ensure they demonstrate the same points you want to stress in class. You want the video demonstration interview to stimulate conversation, but try to avoid senseless quibbles about so-called proper interview behaviors (“My uncle was a personnel director, and he told me to do something different than you are advising!”; “My roommate got a great job last year and she didn’t do any of this stuff”; “I just hated the way he combed his hair!”). Clearly, applicants take many routes to success, and interviewers may prefer different tactics. However, we believe that teachers should stress that while specific advice will vary, there is little controversy about the general guidelines for effectiveness in preparing for and interacting in selection interviews. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. The advice to an interview participant to “get out of yourself” refers to: 119 A. expanding your focus to include the needs and goals of the other person (*) B. suppressing, for the moment, your own personality C. assuming a role or character other than your own D. suppressing your ego E. seeing yourself as others see you 2. A key concern of an employment interview conducted as a “rhetorical encounter” is: A. overreliance on rhetorical questions B. an inevitable clash of goals C. the relative effectiveness of persuasive proofs (*) D. the predominance of argumentation over logic E. the likely emphasis on the “encounter” rather than communication 3. Which of these best describes attribution theory? A. how people try to attribute questionable statements to specific sources of information B. how people attempt to explain the behavior of others (*) C. how people read too much into the motives of others D. how people translate behavior to related theories of communication E. how people make errors in assessing motives and behavior 4. Building rapport in interviews through small talk that humanizes communication is called: A. empathy 120 B. pathos C. validation D. phatic communion (*) E. relayed feedback 5. The employment interview is best described as a: A. test of confidence B. trial that measures the ability to perform under pressure C. communication exchange with mutual implications (*) D. formalized ritual E. interpersonal competition True-False/Explain 6. The employment interview is notoriously weak as a predictor of job success. T___ F___ Why? 7. “Attending behaviors” signal careful listening. T___ F___ Why? 8. Job applicants ought to use the interview as an opportunity to “comparison shop.” T___ F___ Why? 121 9. It is legally permissible to question a prospective employee about marital status. T___ F___ Why? 10. A single-version resume is preferred in today’s job market. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Behavioral interview 12. Decentering 13. Elite selection 14. Needs assessment 15. Functional resume Essay 16. How does Sissela Bok’s “test of publicity” apply to an employment or a selection interview? 17. Describe and discuss the DPFP sequence of developing a resume. 122 18. What can organizations do to create an environment of fairness in employment interviews and hiring? CHAPTER 9: Interviews in Organizations • The nitty-gritty Chapter 9 focuses on the importance and versatility of the interview as a means of effective communication and goal accomplishment in organizations. Most often organizations use interviews as part of a process of performance evaluation, so a good part of the chapter is devoted to appraisal interviews. Methods and motives vary among organizations; the chapter provides an overview of common appraisal processes and systems, including explanation and discussion of ratings, rankings, and surveys, for example, that provide a contextual foundation for effective appraisal interviews. Following the appraisal section, the chapter explains how interviews serve the interests of organizations by addressing and resolving personnel problems that require intervention, such as anger and disruptive workplace behavior. The subject matter ought to be highly relevant to students who intend to assume positions of authority within complex organizations (virtually all communication students aspire to this level of responsibility, whether their organizations will be Microsoft, ABC News, or Wal-Mart). You probably should remind students that other chapters also apply to organizational settings; for 123 example, basic information-gathering interviewing (see Chapters 1 and 6) is a common expectation for any organizational communicator charged with preparing a report. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box asks students to write a global essay appraisal. It should be based upon an actual evaluation experience the student call recall, but there’s no reason why the name of the evaluated person should ever be disclosed in any way. Look for ways to: (1) help students supplement conclusions or generalizations with specific job-related examples, (2) help students clarify for themselves the criteria that underlie their evaluations, and (3) help students examine their work for any potentially unfair or unnecessarily offensive statements that may leak into the essays through careless semantic choices. Students can also use their essays to help construct an appraisal interview schedule. — In the second TOYS box, students analyze an excerpt from a hypothetical intervention interview by examining an interviewer’s conflict management skills and an interviewee’s assertiveness. We’ve made the interviewer’s approach somewhat demanding (some would say “unfair”) and the interviewee responds with requests for clarification. Use this exercise to focus not only on how the manager could have intervened differently (with more explanation of company dilemmas, less anger, and more empathy, for example), but also on realistic ways employees can be assertive when confronted with such evaluations. Did Mardra respond appropriately in this instance? If so, why? If not, why not? 124 — The MYD situations have students trying to “translate” their learning, making it more practical through considering common situations that occur in organizations. The first, a lesson in feedback in the context of an exit interview, will let you see how thoughtful students are about giving and receiving feedback. The second, taking the role of an interviewee who doesn’t receive enough feedback, but desires more, is quite common in organizations; such employees often need to interview interviewers. The third, involving the delicate handling of a sexual harassment complaint, might be a good topic for general class discussion. • Additional activities and discussion questions John Kao, a management consultant at Stanford who has founded a number of companies himself, wrote a book called Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity (New York: HarperBusiness, 1996). His central metaphor, jamming, comes from the music world, of course; jazz players must learn on-the-spot and at-the-moment creativity — but not at the expense of discipline and preparation. Ask students to make connections to organizational interviewing from the following quotation from page 35: Today’s global marketplace — turbulent, “spacey,” and endlessly demanding of the new, the experimental, the faster, the better, and the cheaper — is not a concert-hall environment. There’s no time for business managers to look for solutions in the archives of corporate sheet music. Today’s highly competitive 125 business world puts a premium on the skill of improvisation. All the world’s a jazz club. This is an era, in short, that calls for the inspiration of art. And discipline. The (creative) role of the manager is to work the central paradox, or tension, of the jam session: to locate the ever-mobile sweet spot somewhere between systems and analysis on the one hand and the free-flowing creativity of the individual on the other. How can Kao’s comment help organizational interviewers? Is it at all inconsistent with other interviewers’ advice to set clear goals for employee behavior? How can goal setting and jamming (improvisation) be made more compatible? • Additional resources Print Cheney, G. (1995). Democracy in the workplace: Theory and practice from the perspective of communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 23, 167– 200. Cleveland, J. N., Murphy, K. R., & Williams, R. E. (1989). Multiple uses of performance appraisal: Prevalence and correlates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 130–135. 126 Communication Briefings. (This newsletter is popular with many trainers and teachers. Each of the 12 annual issues collects dozens of brief tips, ideas, suggestions, and vignettes that have worked in someone’s organizational or business setting. Many ideas described are directly or indirectly relevant to interviewing. They can be valuable, but remind students that the occasionally prescriptive tone can mask the difficulties and ambiguities of communication dilemmas. You can contact the publisher at www.briefings.com for subscriptions.) Giacalone, R. A., & Duhon, D. (1991). Assessing intended employee behavior in exit interviews. Journal of Psychology, 125, 83–90. Goodall, H. L., Jr., Wilson, G. L., & Waagen, C. (1986). The performance appraisal interview: An interpretive assessment. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 72, 74–87. Krayer, K. J. (1987). Simulation method for teaching the performance appraisal interview. Communication Education, 36, 276–283. Lobdell, C. L., Sonoda, K. T., & Arnold, W. E. (1993). The influence of perceived supervisor listening behavior on employee commitment. Journal of the International Listening Association, 7, 92–110. Monroe, C., Borzi, M. G., & DiSalvo, V. S. (1993). Managerial strategies for dealing with difficult subordinates. Southern Communication Journal, 58, 247–254. 127 Ray, E. B. (1993). When the links become chains: Considering dysfunctions of supportive communication in the workplace. Communication Monographs, 60, 106–111. Nonprint Organizational interviews, including performance appraisals and exit or termination interviews, tend to be relatively private occasions in practice. However, their relative privacy makes them dramatic events that can be portrayed interestingly in sitcoms and films. You may want to watch for vivid examples in such contemporary spoofs on organizational life as TV sitcoms The Office, starring Steve Carell, or Ugly Betty, starring America Ferrera, and the film Office Space. These comedic portrayals can then be compared to your recommendations for more realistic and effective behaviors. Combining print with nonprint representations, the “Dilbert” cartoons by Scott Adams in newspapers, books, calendars, animations, and online (www.dilbert.com) give teachers of organizational communication much to work with in class. Adams’s work lampoons organizational life and often focuses on performance evaluations between superiors and subordinates. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 128 1. The research of goal-setting theory suggests that: A. goals set by managers achieve a higher level of success B. goals should be easy to accomplish rather than challenging C. goals set jointly by employees and employers are more likely to be met (*) D. goals without rewards usually don’t succeed E. goals with stated consequences for failure generally succeed 2. A narrative evaluation as a form of appraisal: A. ensures a focused, detailed, and frank assessment B. depends, in part, on the writer’s ability to describe an employee’s strengths and weaknesses (*) C. encourages employees to talk about their lives through stories D. ranks employees by their ability to communicate effectively E. succeeds in encouraging supervisors and employees to work together 3. Appraisal interviewers should focus on which type of question? A. closed-ended B. exploratory (*) C. hypothetical D. leading E. indicative 129 4. Psychological contracts are: A. the mental games played in appraisal interviews B. unstated expectations between organizations and workers (*) C. binding work agreements involving fair treatment of employees D. intervention sessions for uncooperative or angry workers E. remedial steps difficult employees are required to take to keep their jobs 5. A 360-degree appraisal system: A. asks employees to undergo a total change in work behavior B. scrutinizes an employee in terms of behavior, attitude, and character C. puts supervisors in the position of being evaluated by workers D. encourages supervisors and employees to exchange perspectives E. collects feedback from everyone affected by the performance of the employee in question (*) True-False/Explain 6. “I-messages” aren’t effective in addressing performance problems. T___ F___ Why? 7. Theory X management assumes that employees work best when carefully monitored and forced to perform. T___ F___ Why? 130 8. In an appraisal interview, the focus should remain exclusively on the interviewee. T___ F___ Why? 9. Some organizations use coaches as part of their appraisal systems. T___ F___ Why? 10. An exit interview is another term for “termination interview.” T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Quality of Work Life 12. Critical incident report 13. BARS system 14. Graphic rating scale 15. Employee assistance programs Essay 16. Describe the logic behind the steps for dealing with anger in the workplace. 131 17. Compare and contrast defensive and supportive climates of communication. Use at least two relevant examples of each, but you do not have to reproduce the precise lists of defensive and supportive behaviors. 18. What role does a company philosophy play in an appraisal process? CHAPTER 10: Interviews in Persuasive Situations • The nitty-gritty Chapter 10 encourages students to see many forms of persuasive encounters, including sales, as interviewing situations. It attempts to counter the assumption that persuasion in selling is a kind of unethical manipulation, and move persuasion more into the realms of listening, learning, and information. Persuasion is not an unsavory goal for communicators. At the same time, those who become familiar with the potential abuses of persuasive interviews become better consumers as well. In addition, this is an opportunity for you to help demystify and clarify similar forms of persuasion, such as negotiation and interrogation/advocacy interviewing. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box, a job-based exercise, allows students to explore the concept of persuasion as a helping relationship. It asks them to consider actual job conditions 132 they’ve experienced in the past (few students will never have worked at a job, but this exercise also fits anyone who’s cooperated with others in any organization); the key is to help them see how organizations are changed in the directions we want primarily when others discern how they are helped by the changes, too. — The second TOYS box, in which the reader imagines being a student ambassador, explores both how a persuader adapts his or her own personality to the task and how questions are answered ethically. We’ve found this to be a good situation for in-class role playing; students directly confront the persuasive cross-pressures as they want — at the same time — to be good spokespersons and honest respondents to potential students and their parents. — The MYD box includes three tasks. The first is an ethics-related issue concerning this chapter’s position that promoting free and fully informed choices among persuadees is realistic. Be straightforward in encouraging students to argue with this position, but remind opponents of the practical benefits mentioned in the chapter, as well as the ethical responsibilities. (It is not incumbent upon teachers, we believe, to take the position that ethical persuasion always “works as well” as unethical, especially in the short run. Everyone has examples of cheaters winning. It’s helpful and perhaps rare, however, for students to hear a strong and persuasive version of the counterargument from a credible source . . . which, as teachers, we hope we are.) The second task asks students to relate negotiation to their own lives. This is an excellent opportunity to ask them to review the concepts of communication competencies and to relate this task to other courses in 133 interpersonal communication. The third task explores the nature of questioning in persuasive interviews relative to a dictum about questions many students have heard about in a different context. You may want to review aspects of Chapter 4 if you choose to bring this up in class. • Additional activities and discussion questions After a discussion of negotiation, highlight a prominent local campus controversy, and use a 10-minute discussion to explore the issues of various “sides.” Identify two or three primary constituencies involved in the controversy, and appoint representatives responsible for speaking for those positions. Then, do a demonstration negotiation interview, with either yourself or a student volunteer working in a fishbowl format in the center of the room. The purpose here is not to “settle” or resolve the problem, but rather to ensure that all sides understand the information and frames of other positions as fully as possible. The negotiator must therefore elicit information and acknowledgments of where information is lacking. Discuss with the class the effectiveness of the negotiation interviewing strategies. Variant: Give volunteer participants a 10-minute break to gather their thoughts about the task; during that 10 minutes, train observers (the rest of the class, perhaps) to look for certain things like defensiveness, the negotiation interviewer’s unintentionally loaded language, unfair summaries of positions, and the like. Later, observers can lead the discussion/analysis. • Additional resources 134 Print Delia, J. (1976). A constructivist analysis of the concept of credibility. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 62, 36–75. Goodman, G. S., & Bottoms, B. L. (1993). Child victims, child witnesses: Understanding and improving testimony. New York: Guilford. King, N. (1987). The first five minutes: The successful opening moves in business, sales, and interviews. New York: Prentice-Hall. Rollnick, S., Miller, W., & Butler, C. C. (2008). Motivational interviewing in health care: Helping patients change behavior. New York: Guilford. Shepherd, G. J. (1992). Communication as influence: Definitional exclusion. Communication Studies, 43, 203–219. Smith, D. H., & Pettegrew, L. S. (1986). Mutual persuasion as a model for doctor-patient communication. Theoretical Medicine, 7, 127–146. Wilson, R. B., Jr. (1996). Effectively interviewing the sales manager candidate. Trusts & Estates, 135, 44–47. 135 Nonprint TruTV (formerly Court TV), a cable/satellite network, telecasts live courtroom interaction. It is an excellent source for students who want to study how lawyers question witnesses. In addition, C-SPAN, another network, often televises congressional hearings in which witnesses are questioned by committees. See the online resources for more information: www.trutv.com and www.c-span.org. Theater, television, and film productions abound with stereotypes of certain occupations associated with persuasive interviewing: the used car salesperson, the insurance salesperson, and the lawyer. It wouldn’t be difficult to make a brief videotape collage of different styles that are facets of such stereotypes. The 1987 movie Tin Men, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, would be a good starting point. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. Defining persuasion as a “helping relationship” means: A. when you persuade someone, that’s helpful for you B. you have to be helped a lot to learn how to persuade others 136 C. meeting your own persuasive goals should also help those people you persuade (*) D. helping professions like counseling, health care, and social work are the best places to study persuasion E. nothing; persuasion is a relationship of influence, not of help 2. Sometimes persuasive interviewers will benefit from the “passant phenomenon.” This means that: A. they will accidentally run across people who want to buy things B. people will spend more than they plan to C. rumors will create a negative image for competing products or services D. sometimes people will disclose personal information to a seemingly credible stranger (*) E. certain kinds of people tend to disclose the vulnerabilities in their defenses without interviewers even having to ask a question 3. The process of social influence (in Kelman’s system) in which people change their behaviors because they want to stimulate a favorable reaction in a specified other person or persons is: A. compliance (*) B. internalization C. immediacy D. identification E. empathy 137 4. The main difference between negotiation and mediation is that: A. mediation is a when a third-party interviewer helps parties in conflict to resolve a disagreement appropriately (*) B. negotiation is a more specific term for mediation C. in negotiation, both parties make the decision together, but in mediation the mediator decides what they should do D. in mediation, both parties voluntarily give up control over their definitions of the situation E. there is no real difference; the terms are roughly synonymous 5. Which of the following characteristics most accurately describe an interrogation interview? A. interrogation interviews are characterized by animosity between participants B. interrogation interviews are conducted by those who already know the answers to the questions they ask C. interrogation interviews presume that interviewees are hiding something D. interrogation interviews are occasions for judging others as persons E. interviewees ideally disclose relevant information whether they have something to hide or not (*) True-False/Explain 138 6. Brown and Keller’s interpersonal ethic means essentially that communication messages should bolster other people’s self-images. T___ F___ Why? 7. Persuasion is the ability to make people do what you want, even if they don’t want to do it. T___ F___ Why? 8. Journalistic interviews have very few elements of persuasion in them. T___ F___ Why? 9. Prior research on the interviewee and the topic/product is relatively important for the master salesperson, because this type of person can sell anything to anyone. T___ F___ Why? 10. “Holding your fire” is an important concept for negotiators because it means you should not say anything that will irritate the other party or parties. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Interrogation 12. Rapport 13. Interviewing by comment 139 14. Assumptive close 15. Fundamental attribution error Essay 16. Imagine that you are placed in charge of a one-day training session for new student ambassadors at your campus. You want them to be sure to understand several basic principles of persuasive interviewing when they start their jobs. In your own words, describe four or five principles that would guide how you present your workshop; then, describe why each of these ideas is important for this task. 17. How do you know in a persuasive interview whether the interviewer is behaving ethically? The text focuses on one overriding criterion. What is it? Describe that principle and whether you agree. Then, describe a specific hypothetical persuasive interview that illustrates how this approach can be applied. 18. Describe the developmental sequence of a typical persuasive interview. You do not have to have memorized names of stages from the textbook, but generally speaking, what are the main goals that should guide the early parts of the interview? The middle? The latter parts? Why? 140 CHAPTER 11: Interviews in Helping Professions • The nitty-gritty Chapter 11 provides an overview of helping in a variety of contexts, including diagnostic, therapeutic, and counseling interviews. The chapter cannot begin to prepare readers to become licensed, professional helpers, but a basic understanding of the helping interview has practical, everyday value for all of us — on the job and in our personal relationships. That point is important, because subtle signals for help can crop up unexpectedly, and if we’re uninformed or unprepared, we can miss them. Emphasis on helping should be tempered with concern that helpers can sometimes become too involved and lose perspective. The chapter also stresses empathy, listening, and probing feelings and perceptions — offering another opportunity to reinforce the skills-plus orientation. Moreover, people in need often aren’t at their communicative best, which further tests the ability of those who want to help them. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box asks the reader to write interview dialogue that can show realistically the successes and dilemmas of diagnostic interviewing. The focus here should be on whether the student can point to places where criteria (such as Rogers’s facilitative conditions) are met by the doctor’s listening style. If class members take the 141 time to act out one or more of these “scripts,” they may hear even more ways to improve this ticklish communication relationship. — The second TOYS box is a classroom exercise that involves students’ real experiences. The stipulation that no details should be mentioned that could “even remotely be able to be associated with the real identities of [people]” gives you yet another opportunity to stress the ethical dimensions of interviewing. — The MYD box sets up a situation in which any student could find himself or herself. It allows the reader to consider elements of diagnostic, therapeutic, and counseling communication. If you discuss this situation directly with students, you may want to remind them that what a potential helper presumes will be helpful may not actually be experienced that way by the disclosing person. Thus, a listener may be tempted to get angry, or reinforce a tendency to blame, or claim, “I know exactly what you should do,” or say “Leave it all up to me!” Help students recognize that none of these approaches will necessarily be helpful unless the disclosing person feels understood and “listened to.” • Additional activities and discussion questions — Consult Andrew Wolvin and Carolyn Gwynn Coakley’s text, Listening, 5th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996). On pp. 284–289, they discuss a series of inappropriate and unhelpful listening responses that cut off people’s own self-exploration when they are disclosing themselves to a listener. Each example is matched effectively with a brief 142 discussion of the problem it creates. For example, “Forget it. It’s water over the dam now” (p. 285) is analyzed as a discounting response that indicates the disclosing person somehow isn’t entitled to experience whatever frustration he or she feels. “You probably haven’t demonstrated enough initiative on the job,” an evaluative response, similarly stifles someone’s attempt to be understood. A useful classroom exercise might be to have groups look over a list of Wolvin and Coakley’s 10 inappropriate response statement examples, and then either: (1) discuss their relative frequency on campus, (2) discuss how typical they are of group members’ own behavior, or (3) create a dramatic scene to present to the class that illustrates one or two of the principles. — In addition, David W. Johnson’s Reaching Out: Interpersonal Effectiveness and SelfActualization, 9th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2006), contains dozens of exercises that are easily adaptable to helping interviews. • Additional resources Print Baldwin, M. (1987). Interview with Carl Rogers on the use of the self in therapy. In M. Baldwin & V. Satir (Eds.), The use of self in therapy (pp. 45–52). New York: Haworth Press. 143 Barrier, P. A., Li, J. T.-C., & Jensen, N. M. (2003). Two words to improve physicianpatient communication: What else? Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 78, 211–214. Available at: www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/pdf%2F7802%2F7802crc.pdf Cichon, E. J., & Masterson, J. T. (1993). Physician-patient communication: Mutual role expectations. Communication Quarterly, 41, 477–489. DiSalvo, V. S., Larsen, J. K., & Backus, D. K. (1986). The health care communicator: An identification of skills and problems. Communication Education, 35, 231–242. Geist, P., & Dreyer, J. (1993). The demise of dialogue: A critique of medical encounter ideology. Western Journal of Communication, 57, 233–246. Jackson, S. W. (1992). The listening healer in the history of psychological healing. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 1623–1632. Keranen, L. (2007). “‘Cause someday we all die”: Rhetoric, agency, and the case of the ‘patient’ preferences worksheet. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 93, 179–210. Kron, T., & Friedman, M. (1994). Problems of confirmation in psychotherapy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 34, 66–83. 144 Lipchik, E. (1992). A “reflecting interview.” Journal of Strategic & Systemic Therapies, 11(4), 59–74. Platt, F. W. (1992). Conversation failure: Case studies in doctor-patient communication. Tacoma, WA: Life Sciences Press. Schneider, D. E., & Beaubien, R. A. (1996). A naturalistic investigation of compliancegaining strategies employed by doctors in medical interviews. Southern Communication Journal, 61, 332–341. • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 1. In medicine, a patient-centered approach involves: A. controlling the emotions of patients B. studying the physical roots of illness from the patient’s perspective C. exploring both the disease and the illness “experience” (*) D. letting the helper take charge of the patient’s treatment E. keeping the patient fully informed of decisions 2. In therapy, the client can actually end up playing this role: A. therapist 145 B. teacher (*) C. facilitator D. supplicant E. parent figure 3. Codependency refers to: A. two or more addictions or dependencies exhibited by one client B. patients who depend on their helpers C. a helper who suffers emotional harm as a result of dealing with clients D. the therapist-client relationship generally E. manipulation or control by the client (or patient) of others (*) 4. A study found that the interviewing type of the typical physician most often fits this model: A. “Find it — Tell What to Do” (*) B. “Listen, Learn, and Act” C. “Partnership” D. “How Can I Help?” E. “Ask, Don’t Tell” 5. Which of the following best fits a balanced approach for helpers in a variety of contexts? A. stay focused on doing everything to serve the person being helped 146 B. respect the other person’s role in helping himself or herself (*) C. keep others fully informed at early stages D. give the person being helped ample opportunity to engage in dialogue, then act according to your assessment of his or her best interests E. exhibit a combination of empathy and sympathy True-False/Explain 6. Leading questions can be a serious problem in diagnostic interviews. T___ F___ Why? 7. People use narratives to define and redefine themselves. T___ F___ Why? 8. Nonscheduled interviews are rare in therapy. T___ F___ Why? 9. “Facilitative conditions” refers to the ways some helpers manipulate the feelings of their clients. T___ F___ Why? 10. An inverted funnel sequence of questions is not recommended in diagnostic interviews. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. Closure 147 12. Precipitating event 13. Case worker 14. Holding 15. Cognitive therapy Essay 16. Discuss the roles of both content-oriented and feeling-oriented listening in a specific helping context of your own choice (such as a doctor-patient diagnostic interview or an advisor-student counseling interview on campus). 17. Outline the arguments for and against full disclosure of information to medical patients. 18. What are the possible implications and consequences of helping strategies that are basically “directive”? PART THREE: INTERVIEWING IN A WIDER CONTEXT 148 CHAPTER 12: Understanding and Analyzing Interviews in Popular Media Culture • The nitty-gritty Chapter 12 is intended to help students analyze broadcast interviews, and clarify for themselves why broadcast interviewing behaviors often do not match the demands of other face-to-face interview situations. Some instructors may want to assign this chapter early in the term to establish that broadcast interviewers are not always good models for student learning in the various other interview contexts in which professionals will find themselves. For other instructors, the chapter fits best in a part of the course that applies interviewing to a wider public stage. In a sense, this chapter encourages a kind of media literacy, and it gives students the tools to analyze media interviews. After stressing how broadcast interviews can’t be compared directly to most other types, don’t forget to stress the ways in which students can learn from famous interviewers. • Suggestions for “Trying Out Your Skills” and “Making Your Decision” boxes — The first TOYS box involves a structured opportunity to practice broadcast interviewing skills. Some communication students will find this directly relevant to their careers, but for others it will be primarily an exercise in realizing how difficult broadcast communication can be. This also may be adapted as a major class assignment — video recorded and analyzed outside of class time — if you have a high percentage of broadcast journalism or media communication majors in class. You should, in that case, prepare 149 specific criteria for interviewers and interviewees to use when evaluating their own performances and for you to use in providing feedback to each student. — The second TOYS box asks students to try to observe this chapter’s concepts at work in a sample video-recorded broadcast interview. Of course, this activity is readily adaptable for classroom use; you could show a typical or exemplary broadcast interview in class, then have individuals, teams, or groups analyze it in terms of conversational “collusion,” for example. (It is also possible to structure an experiential exam for students in which the questions all derive from, and must be referred to, a video record students watch in the first 10 minutes or so of class.) — The MYD box offers four opportunities for students to practice critical thinking skills as applied to the content and format of actual interview programs and a classic film on broadcast news. Most students should be familiar with programs and possibly the movie, but here they get to step into the role of critic after considerable but limited experience as “viewers.” • Additional activities and discussion questions — What can be done by news media sources to change what Claflin calls “the rules”? What the public can do? What about politicians and other public figures? 150 — How is this chapter related to discussions in earlier chapters of public dialogue and public journalism? — In any given controversy, how often do broadcast interviewers “ask the reader’s/viewer’s questions,” which was suggested in the chapter on journalistic interviews? Are broadcast interviewers journalists in the same sense that newspaper reporters are, or does the need to entertain and dramatize change their role in some fundamental way? • Additional resources Print Clayton, S., & Heritage, J. (2002). The news interview: Journalists and public figures on the air. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DiBella, S. M., Ferri, A. J., & Padderud, A. B. (1991). Scientists’ reasons for mass media interviews. Journalism Quarterly, 68, 741–749. McLaughlin, P. (1986). Asking questions: The art of the media interview. Vancouver, BC: International Self-Counsel Press. 151 McLoughlin, B. (1992). Encountering the media: Pocket tips booklet. Washington, DC: Barry McLoughlin Associates. Montgomery, M. (2008). The discourse of the broadcast news interview. Journalism Studies, 9, 260–277. Rubin, A. M., & Step, M. M. (1997). Viewing television talk shows. Communication Research Reports, 14, 106–115. Stavitsky, A. G. (1995). Independence and integrity: A guidebook for public radio journalism. Washington, DC: National Public Radio. Nonprint Web sites of the major networks, along with CNN, PBS, and NPR. Assign students to monitor a specific Web site for broadcast interviews that offer examples of nonverbal codes or other points of analysis.) • Sample exam questions: multiple choice, true-false/explain, identification, essay Multiple Choice 152 1. Goffman develops the notion of the audience as a “ratified participant.” This means that in broadcasts, the audience is: A. sometimes polled ahead of time to determine its attitudes B. taken into account as if it were participating directly, even if it doesn’t do so (*) C. given special privileges D. thought to be essentially rational in its contribution to public dialogue E. thought to be essentially emotional in its contribution to public dialogue 2. Sound bites are important because they are primarily designed to: A. sell soap and other products in advertisements B. manipulate people into buying what they don’t want C. empathize with the broadcast interviewee D. capture complex thoughts in a few words (*) E. influence public opinion researchers 3. ESPN reporters like to interview sports stars like Derek Jeter, Lorena Ochoa, or Tim Duncan on the field, course, or court before or after a game. This is a good example of a: A. situational code (*) B. verbal code C. formational code D. communication rule E. empathic social role 153 4. A tight shot refers to: A. finding the right thing to say the first time around B. a television set that is too small for the number of people the camera has to show C. especially nervous interviewees D. a particular kind of verbal code E. an extremely close camera view of a person (*) 5. Broadcast interviews are: A. essentially like most journalistic interviews B. different from most journalistic interviews in crucial ways (*) C. occasions in which the interviewer is there to learn something new from the interviewee D. occasions in which the interviewee is usually unaware of what the interviewer wants E. usually rehearsed over and over before they are recorded or aired live True-False/Explain 6. Although broadcasts have to appeal to audiences, audiences play a relatively small role in determining how broadcast interviews are conducted. T___ F___ Why? 7. In broadcasts, interviewers and interviewees often are expected to collude (cooperate covertly) to produce an interesting show. T___ F___ Why? 154 8. An identity code is a way to hide your own identity if you need to do so in an interview. T___ F___ Why? 9. An establishing shot in broadcasts is one in which the camera shows all participants, as well as the context in which they will talk. T___ F___ Why? 10. Broadcast interviews must provide content that is transitory. T___ F___ Why? Identification 11. The “literature” of an academic field 12. Demographics 13. Filmic procedures 14. Ratified participant 15. Artifacts Essay 155 16. Imagine you have a friend who watches a great deal of television (including many talk shows and news programs), but who tends not to read magazines or newspapers. You want to explain why the interviewers she or he sees on television are not necessarily good models for the range of interviewing skills you’ve learned in this course, no matter how glib or charismatic they seem. How would you describe to your friend the major differences between the goals of broadcast interviewers and the goals of research interviewers (or selection interviewers)? 17. You’re going to be interviewed by a local radio personality about “what it’s like to be a successful college student.” Unfortunately, you don’t have a clue about how the interviewer will define these terms, and efforts to reach him are fruitless. You must begin to prepare for the interview. Using the ideas of this chapter, write a brief essay in which you describe how you’d prepare systematically for such an experience — what content you’d anticipate, how you want to phrase responses, and so forth. 18. In your opinion, which other type(s) of interviews would be most improved by the skills and insights of broadcast interviewers and interviewees? Explain your position with specific examples and applications. CHAPTER 13: Wrapping It All Up: Professional Interviewing • The nitty-gritty 156 We’ve written Chapter 13 so you can assign it prior to the final substantive class meeting, the one during which many teachers like to summarize the class and preview students’ future interests and involvements with interviewing skills. Although you can come up with exam items from it if you’d like, and may want to include Chapter 13 ideas in assignments prior to a final exam, it adds little content to the rest of the book. Instead, it simply puts basic ideas in both retrospective and prospective context, and gives students ideas for continuing their learning after the course ends. Teachers may want to use this opportunity to reinforce their own personal reflections on the practicality of interviewing classes for students, at both the skills level and the skills-plus level. We often find that students are eager, too, to talk about their own futures at the close of an interviewing class. See if you can make a space for this impulse during your busy end-of-term scheduling.