We'll be talking about interviews next week in lecture. To prepare, check out this piece on the wildly successful Q&A feature in the New York Times magazine and liberties taken with questions and answers. And listen to this audio file of a story from NPR's "On the Media" show (available through the J202 podcast on Learn@UW).
Should we edit people's words? Are "ums, likes and you knows" different from more substantive words? Is it different in audio than in text?
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Quotable
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2 comments:
I read something recently (can't remember what it was) where reporters and editors were discussing ums, likes, and you knows. Most of them didn't use them unless they were trying to make a point of some kind. It bugged me to hear that. They expanded the discussion to correcting spelling in email correspondence. Some thought it was OK to do so since email is much more like an oral conversation than a written report and likened it to oral ums. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I see their point, but at the same time, it is not an accurate telling of what someone said.
Didn't our text book say it was OK to rearrange quotes to fit your story? Making up questions after the fact is pretty horrible. But sometimes interviews really are just conversations that flow from one thing to another in a pretty haphazard way. If a statement from a meandering talk fits the context and tone of a question asked at another time, it seems OK to put it there in a Q&A. I don't think anyone expects a transcript. At the same time, it makes me nervous to do that, and I've learned if it doesn't feel right, don't do it. Things nag at you for a reason.
I think it definately depends on the situation...
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