Wilen: "Listen Up"

WILEN: "LISTEN UP"
Tips for successful interviewing begin with listening
By Suzanne Cervenka

Open up those ears; it’s the basic step in quality interviewing.
“If you can’t listen, you can’t interview,” said Saul B. Wilen, chief executive officer of International Horizons Unlimited and expert on interviewing techniques.
Wilen said he was not trained as a journalist by trade but he has developed his craft through a background in political science, education and medicine.

Every interview is not the same. Each requires an interactive process using one’s critical thinking ability, Wilen said.
“It’s about asking good questions and learning to ask the next logical question,” he said.
Preparation is key to successful information gathering. Journalists have to do their homework and be open to accepting the information at hand, he said.
“If I don’t understand the language being used, I can’t even get off the ground,” Wilen added.
With the knowledge of the subject and an understanding of the background materials, the interviewer has to establish the goals. “What are the key points you want to get out of the interview?” he emphasized.

Quality interviewing comes with practice, not time. Wilen contends that some of the most seasoned and veteran journalists aren’t using all of the tools that are available to them.
He contends that some spokespersons try to throw journalists off track by using tactics ranging from spinning their information and diverging from the question to engaging in double-speak and disinformation. To succeed with a difficult source, the journalist must first ask if the question was answered, and if not, focus the source on the issue by wording the queries in a concise, relevant manner, Wilen stated.
Wilen suggested that journalists drop “why” from their interviewing vocabulary.
“Many times, there is no ‘why,’” he said. Wilen added that interviewers need to find the “what” behind the issue.

Dr. Saul B. Wilen presented an Invited Seminar for the Society of Professional Journalists National Convention in Tampa, Florida, on September 13, 2003. This seminar focused on educating media to anticipate and ask:

“The Next Logical Question.”

Journalists explored, how to decipher: disinformation, divergence, and double-speak.

This was an opportunity for professional development – a cutting edge educational program pushing the envelope to produce better critical thinking processes and outcomes.

In this day and age when spokespersons for industry and government are trained in: spin, obfuscation, divergence, double-speak, misinformation, and even disinformation, the job of the professional journalist is made even harder. There is a need to understand and decipher these tactics. There is a need to be prepared to respond through asking the next logical question. Skills-based information gathering techniques are useful in accomplishing this goal. Starting with listening as a fundamental skill, journalists were introduced to the next logical question process and shown the usefulness of skills-based information gathering in formulating incisive questions.