Interviewing and its place in

Ugandan sports journalism

By Robert Madoi
Morning comrades,
It is with great pleasure that I delve into something that could well be the very
lifeblood of this great art that is journalism - interviewing. It's a given that
every journalist worth the salt is full of questions. Owing to this, you wouldn't
be farther away from the truth when you say that interviewing is one of, if not
the, greatest tools in our repertoire.
Remarkably, a number of us have fallen way short of mastering the basics
that make one a good interviewer. This is rather sad for if you have many
problems mastering the art of interviewing; chances are that you will make a
slapdash journalist since you won't have what it takes to hold those in power
to account.
This art of interviewing can make or break not just a journalist, but everyone.
Back in college, I remember a friend scoring few points during a prom -- or
social as we call it -- when he asked his date, a very nice-looking girl, "mpozi,
you are a girl". We had spent the whole night before the prom practising the
kind of questions we would ask the girls to make a lasting impression.
Obviously, my friend was overwhelmed by, yes, the occasion, but also,
possibly, the beauty of the girl. He goofed with the first question of his
'interview', and things didn't pan out well for him after.
As journalists, we face similar, if not greater, perils. When our questions show
that we are grounded in the subject matter, we land the Holy Grail. The
reverse is also true.
A good reporter is full of questions, and not just the classic 5Ws and one H
(who, what, where, when, why and how), but recurring, often sub-conscious,
questions that guide working life. The questions we ask could be personal,
intense or refreshingly blunt. They should be all this because conventional
wisdom shows that an unremarkable story is made remarkable by curiosity at

work. This curiosity shows itself true in the aforesaid recurring questions. It is
this curiosity that enables us to leave an interview with more than just facts
and figures, which can be gotten from documents anyway!
Good journalists always seek to get quotes, enlightening anecdotes and
streaks of humanity, and they glean these by asking questions. They ask for
evidence (how do you know that?); details (exactly how much? How many?
How big?); reactions (what did you say then? How bad was it?); other
sources (who else knows about it? Who's out to get you? Who are your
biggest supporters?); and hard questions (have you ever been arrested? Are
you a pedophile?).
Ultimately, what good journalists want to get out of interviews are good
anecdotes (and quotes, obviously!). The dictionary defines an anecdote as 'a
short and amusing story about a real incident or person'. The operative words
in the definition are 'short' and 'amusing'. As a journalist, you could implicitly
ask for anecdotes. By implicit, I mean you don't just tell your interviewee, 'tell
me a good anecdote', but rather ask for it in a savvy, if subtle, way (say, what
is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you since you took over
The Cranes job?). I remember asking for one such anecdote from former
Cranes coach, Mohammed Abbas, and getting one, a graphic one at that,
about how a gay Cranes officer was on the loose in The Cranes' camp.
The key thing for us to know is that people savour memories. They savour
sharing them too. You should have seen the gusto with which Abbas shared
the anecdote about the aforesaid gay official. It was quite frankly something!
As journalists, we are brought up on the diet that careful observation
excavates evidence. There is no doubting this. I recall watching Abbas being
lifted shoulder high by fans after Uganda had beaten Cape Verde 1-0 in 2005.
It was a good sight, one that we are accustomed seeing European fans give
to their cult heroes. But if I had not hanged around a bit longer to look for
significant detail, I wouldn't have seen the 'unEuropean' part of the
celebrations in the aftermath of The Cranes' 1-0 win over Cape Verde.
Abbas's pocket was picked by the fans that made off with his $1000-heavy
wallet! This was a captivating anecdote that enriched my match report.

We have to exercise the same hunger for captivating anecdotes when doing
interviews. We should look with our minds. What this essentially means is
that we have to prepare before we embark on an interview. We shouldn't just
interview a subject to get facts and figures. Instead, it is imperative that we
come out of an interview with good quotes, captivating anecdotes, and
streaks of humanity to enliven our pieces of journalism.
The best practices as regard interviewing entail preparing before hand,
putting the interviewee at ease, listening, recording what we hear, and getting
it on the record.
Preparation is key because of the simple fact that it makes the interviewer to
be full of surprises as opposed to being predictable. Preparation furnishes us
with witty questions. As one great mind once said, intelligent questions by an
interviewer loosen the tongue of an interviewee.
That said, although the bread and butter of a good interview is a set of tough
questions, it is time tested that taking a milder, much less bellicose, tone in
the first few minutes stands one in good stead. usually, the first few minutes
are spent building rapport with the interviewee before the deluge of the tough
questions.
Asking elementary questions (ice breakers and the like) may set the stage for
a great interview, but usually we throw a spanner in the works by not listening
as much as we ought to as the interview matures. Often, subtle actions such
as sympathetic attention connoted by a nod or lean forward could get you a
much-needed anecdote. Yet instead of listening and providing
encouragement, we have this morbid tendency of cutting off an interviewee
when they are saying something gravely important. Kevin Ogen Aliro (RIP),
one of my former editors who had a huge impact on my formative years as a
bona fide journalist, once put it candidly, if bluntly. Shut up and listen!, he
once bellowed to us. Rightly so. Let us learn to, well, shut up and listen. It
does us a world of good!
But as we listen, we should also appreciate the fact that our very disposition
should be one laden with questions. We should ask questions in torrents
because we are emboldened by the truism that there are no embarrassing
questions; only embarrassing answers. So, go on and ask questions be they
philosophical questions, anecdote questions, numerically defining questions,

creative questions, filter questions, routinely factual questions, probing

questions, and, last but not least, quotation-soliciting questions. Ask them all.
As we embark on an asking spree, it is imperative that we let our interviews
morph into conversations. This is vital for the simple fact that conversations
are more enlivening when juxtaposed with monologues. This is the sole
reason why the Guardian's (UK) Small Talk is one of the most cherished,
awaited, and religiously read interviews -- it is downright conversational.
To get ingredients that help churn a conversational interview, one has to be
studious. There are no two ways about it, you have to have a conversational
currency to sustain an engaging conversation.
You also have to have gadgets that will help you capture the contents of your
interview. Such is the beauty of the dot.com era that your smartphone -- or
even Kabiriti! -- could be that gadget. There is one caveat, though, machines
also have their drawbacks. They malfunction. I vividly recall back in 2005
when my colleagues, Kevin Ogen Aliro and Pius Katunzi, conducted a rare
interview with President Museveni at the sprawling State House in Entebbe.
On returning to the-then Weekly Observer newsroom at Clement Hill Road,
the pair was shocked to learn that it had recorded 'air'. They were shocked to
the bone, but had to compose themselves since the news desk was
expecting them to produce the lead that week. Fortunately, the pair had
polished its note-taking skills. They had written down something, an duly
used this to produce something epic.
The lesson I picked from this was, even when recording, an interviewer
should jot down quotes that have captured their fancy. Anecdotes, names,
addresses, titles and numbers should also be written down as should
descriptions of subjects and scenes for good measure. Recorders
malfunction, but we can find a silver lining on the proverbial dark cloud if we
improve our note-taking.
Long and short of it, we live in a society predisposed to what interviews
encapsulate. This society deserves answers, and it is our duty to ask the kind
of questions that will assuage its thirst. We should eschew the precarious
approach that led my college friend to asking his prom date whether she is a
girl. We should embrace that studious approach that gleans colourful
anecdotes and quotable quotes.

Good luck with your interviews, and thank you!

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