Speaker: Isabel Wilkerson
Session: Accelerated Intimacy: Working Well With Sources
Dec. 2, 2001, 2:00-3:15 p.m.

ISABEL WILKERSON OFFERS A GUIDE TO INTIMATE INTERVIEWS

By Ellen Sung

When I met Isabel Wilkerson in 1997 in Washington, D.C., I was awestruck. Here was a woman who had not only landed a job at The New York Times, but also had been promoted to Chicago bureau chief, and won her profession's highest honor -- all while balancing her career with a husband and child. Like me, she was a woman of color, the first African American ever to win a Pulitzer for individual reporting.

All that, and she wasn't even 30 years old at the time.

So I was relieved when she began her NWW talk by admitting that she is human, confessing that she does not consider herself a really great interviewer.

But as her session progressed, I realized she was being entirely too modest. She defined interviewing very narrowly, as the type of conversation a reporter might have with an elected official. In her work, she deals primarily with ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and peppering them with questions to try to get quotes or facts or opinions doesn't seem appropriate.

She calls the interaction as a "guided conversation," not an interview. But call it what you want: Isabel Wilkerson is terrific at conducting it.

If ordinary people ever knew the consequences of speaking to a reporter, they would never agree to it, Wilkerson said. So she tries to understand what might motivate people to talk to the press: catharsis, ego gratification, attention, friendship, or even ill conceived hopes for money.

Nonetheless, there is a real power differential between the reporter and the person on the other side of the notepad. She seemed to really understand the magnitude of that difference, and what a gift her subjects give by speaking to her.

When it comes to the interview ("guided conversation") itself, she tries to play down the power difference by thinking, "What kind of natural relationship would I have with this person in my community?" For example, she related to some elderly subjects in her upcoming book the way she might relate to a grandmother.

"Honesty and empathy are the balance to power in the relationship," she said.

She also outlined seven phases that she believes that all interviews go through. Reporters should understand these predictable cycles because, almost invariably, the very best information you get from a subject is when you are face-to-face in the interview.

Going back to the newsroom and calling them on the phone doesn't cut it. There is magic to the interview, a spell that reporters cast on subjects that will get them to say things they would never ordinarily say to a stranger, Wilkerson said.

Here are the seven parts of the interview arc she described:

1. Introduction

The subject doesn't want to be bothered by a stranger, and probably wants to get rid of you.

2. Adjustment/Feeling each other out

The reporter is making a little progress: jotting down notes, getting answers. The subject wonders, "Do I really want to do this?" and is getting used to note taking.

3. Moment of connection

The reporter may detect she is not getting what she wants, trying a different tack.

4. Settling in

The reporter gains confidence; the subject realizes this is not so bad, that it's actually enjoyable.

5. Revelation

The source feels really comfortable and speaks very candidly. For the reporter, phase 5 is often NOT the information he or she is after, but the information the source really wants to share. Keep nodding and scribbling, Isabel advises.

6. Deceleration

The reporter puts down her notebook, and then… the source doesn't want the interview to end. Often, that is when the best quotes of the interview come. Write them down!

7. Revelation or reinvigoration
   The reporter has the source in the palm of her hand. The spell is cast; don't lose the magic.

I don't entirely agree with the seven phases, but I think they're a useful guide. Apparently, many others in the audience found it useful too; before she was even done with her presentation, twelve people lined up at the microphone to ask questions!

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