Joyce Davis  On Reporting


WHAT YOU CAN'T GET FROM JOURNALISM SCHOOL

Everything in this business. Yeah, there were basic things of how to structure a sentence, and that you need to know. But you know what I really wish they had told me a whole lot more about is that in addition to your journalism courses, you must take history. You must, because what we do now involves knowing what happened before. Everything has to be in a context. I wish people had just emphasized much more the history aspect of things. But basically, this is a do it business. I mean, you can learn all you want in college. Frankly, I really believe this. And people come to me, and I know you're not gonna like this, and say, "Should I go on and do graduate school" and all that, and I said that's fine. But in the bottom line is, when you're there competing against other journalists, it's "Can you do it?" This may help you do it, but basically getting out there, and proving yourself. If you're a writer, write! If you're a reporter, report! Freelance! If nobody's paying you, find somebody that'll get the story published. You've gotta have it inside of you to just do it. That's what it boils down to.

What I find is that too often, though, youngsters, because they're just not sure, the market is so tough, they think that, "Well, if I go out there, and come out with every degree imaginable, and Ph.D.s, and all this, that'll get me a job, or that'll assure my success" and it won't assure your success. What assures your success is having what it takes to be a reporter, to be a journalist. And the only way you know that is by getting out there and doing it.

GETTING FOLKS TO TALK: LEARNING WHEN TO SHUT UP

Well, you know, there are two different techniques, 'cause I had to learn one technique, and that is keeping your mouth shut! (Laughs) For radio. Because my way of talking to people, especially for press, is to talk to them. I mean, just get them all riled up about something and we're talking, and I'm talking, and you're talking, and if I have a tape recorder, that's fine, but I'm taking notes, or whatever. I generally as print, I took notes a lot. But it is amazing when you shut up how much you get. People don't like silences, and it was the most amazing thing for me. My normal way of interviewing someone would be to sit down, and ask you a question, and as soon as you shut up, give you another one, and as soon as you shut up, go on to something else, and just really pick at you a lot. I tried with the radio and these other sources, to ask you a question, let you answer, and then say absolutely nothing. That was very hard. The person will come out with the deepest thing if you just let them fill those silences. Because they start stretching, they start reaching down deep for deeper things to tell you, and you let their thoughts develop, and it's hard. But if you're doing the radio stuff, that's the best advice I can give you. The other, try it with the writing, try it. It may work, I don't know. It never worked for me.

PLAYING DEVIL'S ADVOCATE DURING AN INTERVIEW

There's the silent technique that I was amazed that worked, and the other one was to just to really talk, and to, getting people angry sometimes helps. As long as you can, it's a very dangerous game to play. You have to know how to do it. You have to be able to say "Listen, understand I'm playing the devil's advocate here, but I'm gonna ask you a tough question" and I've done that several times, and I'll say it, "You know I have to ask you some tough questions, it's just my job. But did you really steal that money? Did you really do that?" Well, I tell you, I sat down with Hassan Al-Turabi, who is supposed to be the power behind the government of Sudan. And I basically looked at him and said, "You know, I have to ask you this. And you've been very nice to us, and we really enjoy ourselves here, and I've been very impressed by this country. But people say that you're arresting people without charge. And they say that you're actually ordering massacres of people in the south. Is that true?" And he didn't have to answer. And then I had to also say, "And you know, it just seems to me, that's really not a democratic government if you're arresting people without charge, and holding them in cells for months at a time." And to really be able to pursue that, now that can anger him, 'cause that's not the question he wanted. But it had to be asked. You have to do it as a journalist. I couldn't do that. So, it's a way of doing it without cutting off, also, the interview, because you're still gonna want to go back to this person, and you're still going to want to pursue other questions. So how do you do that? And I think the technique that I've just used, of being a devil's advocate, of letting him know, look, this is nothing personal between you and me, but I've got to hit you with this because I'm a journalist. And it gets back to the issue again of the distance. Keeping the distance.