Good questions are the most basic tools in a reporter's kit. Yet, journalists sometimes go in unprepared. This has consequences.
Fair reporting starts with fair questions. There are times when journalists will need to ask hard questions that sources don't want to answer. There are times when journalists might personally disagree with a source's point of view or even know that the source is lying or bending the truth. Still, the questions must be asked neutrally, because they drive the tone of the reporting.
A reporter's questions also influence how the audience views the source, the reporter and the news organization. Questions that lack clarity can lead to confusing answers. Combative questions can lead to defensive answers.
Strong questions are devised with the goal of providing the audience with as much information as possible, so they can walk away smarter on the topic.
Asking fair questions is a skill cultivated over time and starts with preparation. The classroom is a great place to hone such a skill. Teachers and classmates can formulate and troubleshoot questions through exercises, mock interviews and conversations. In this installment of the Educator Edition of the NPR Public Editor newsletter, we'll look at how questions shape an interview and give guidance on the process of forming fair questions. We'll also provide an in-class exercise to give students the opportunity to rewrite unfair questions with more balance. — Nicole Slaughter Graham
Balanced and fair questions make it possible for the audience to walk away with a deeper understanding of the topic or the person at hand.
It's our job as interviewers to come to the interview with an open mind. When interviewers construct questions that allow the topic to be illuminated by the source, audience members remember the answers, rather than the interviewer.
Certainly, there will be times when interviewers face sources who dodge the questions. Persistence is important when this happens. And tough questions do not have to be hostile questions. Skilled interviewers can ask the hard questions while maintaining fairness.
Consider these tips as you formulate your questions:
Prepare, prepare, prepare — You should know as much as you can about your subject. With the internet at your fingertips, information is easy to find. If you're interviewing someone who just wrote a book, reading that book (or at least a summary or a review) is the minimum requirement. Look at the rest of their work. Look at their history. Figure out who they are and use what you learn to formulate more interesting questions.
Maintain curiosity — As a prepared journalist, you're coming to the interview having done your research. That doesn't necessarily mean you already know the answers to your source's questions, though. It's useful to set your assumptions aside and ask your question as if you don't know the answer, which takes curiosity. When you approach a subject with curiosity, it's easier to strike a tone of objectivity and interest.
Open-ended questions lead to better answers — Questions that start with "why" and "how" are among the simplest ways to phrase strong inquiries. Closed-ended questions, those that can be answered with a "yes" or "no," can sometimes cause sources to shut down or tighten up. Open-ended questions allow sources to expand on their knowledge.
This doesn't mean you will never ask a closed-ended question. But they should be rare.
Leave out the baggage — Often the best way to do this is to leave out the prefaces, or the argumentative phrases. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't ask about something controversial or something you're curious about. Just make sure you're doing so in a way that makes space for an authentic answer to come through. Don't assume your source feels a certain way about a situation or topic. As you formulate your questions, ask yourself:
- Does my language sound accusatory?
- Am I making an assumption in the way I've asked this?
- Is there any charged language?
- Is this straightforward?
- Is my mindset right? Am I ready to hear answers to the questions I'm asking?
Think about what's important to the story — When asking questions, think about what's essential to the story, or what the audience needs to know about the topic. You don't want to dig for the sake of it, but rather ask questions that illuminate what the audience needs to know.
Write your questions down — This may seem trivial, but it's really important when it comes to deterring our personal biases. If you just have a list of bullet points, that leaves room for bias to seep in. Instead, write down the full question.
Run your questions by someone else — If you've done your research and immersed yourself in your subject matter long enough, odds are you might have a hard time discerning whether your questions are fair because you're so close to the topic at this point. It's a great idea to bring in another journalist or editor that you trust to take a look at what you have. They're coming from a fresh perspective and can help you troubleshoot any issues with your questions.
Becoming an expert interviewer doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen in a silo, which is what makes the classroom so valuable for practice.
In this handout, we present two lessons so students can hone what they've learned. The first has several unfair questions. Have your students first identify what makes the question unfair, using the information we've provided here, and then have them rewrite the questions more fairly. We've also provided links to a couple of short interviews. Your students can choose one of those interviews and then rewrite the questions as if they were asking them. — Nicole Slaughter Graham
The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Emily Barske Wood and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, X and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.
Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute
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