Sonya Gavankar has worked at the Newseum for most of the establishment’s 20-year history. She’s learned a thing or two about reporters in the process, including their uncanny ability to turn every situation into an interview. The trick to interviewing journalists is to make them feel “like they’re at a cocktail party with friends,…
#260 – Black Hawk Down author shares interviewing tips
The most challenging hurdle to clear when starting to research a piece is getting people to agree to be interviewed. Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down and, more recently, Hue 1968, says the key is to demonstrate to a potential interviewee “you’re genuinely interested in the truth and will treat them fairly.” Speaking…
#259 — Making a game of finding fake news
Plenty of public events have been jokingly turned into bingo-style drinking games, but there’s a new game designed specifically to help promote media literacy and distinguish fake news from the real thing. Robert Hone, acting director of the American University Game Lab Studio, and Maggie Farley, a professional fellow with the Journalism and Leadership…
#258 — Old-School approach sometimes the best path forward
Town libraries are the new town halls. When WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio, wanted to encourage its audience to get more involved in the stories the station was telling, it set out to try and determine the best way to reach new people. For a project called Curious City, the station wanted Chicago residents to…
#257— What local stories are getting lost in Trump media morass?
When the 24-7 news cycle is largely wall-to-wall coverage of what the president has tweeted or the scandals facing the White House, there are unknown scores of stories not being written. “TV comedians and journalists are focusing on the Trump administration,” said David Mindich, a professor of media studies, journalism and digital arts at…
225. Investigative podcast sheds light on 27-year-old abduction
On this episode of It’s All Journalism, host Michael O’Connell talks to American Public Media’s Madeleine Baran and Samara Freemark about In the Dark, their podcast investigation into the 29-year-old abduction case of Minnesota resident Jacob Wetterling. In the Dark does try to solve the case, rather it takes hard look at why it took authorities so long to solve the crime.