Recently I agreed to a phone survey with a woman who's getting her Ph.D. in mass communications research.
She has been interviewing newspaper journalists from all over the country about how technology is impacting their careers and has found that age is a big factor in how they respond. Apparently, the 32 and over crowd is pretty weary of technology and generally pessimistic about the future of newspapers while younger reporters say that it's "an exciting time to be in the media" because technology is transforming everything. I find myself with a mix of those attitudes. I guess I am wearily excited or excitedly weary. I do think it will be cool to learn to shoot video and blog and do podcasts but I just hope it actually translates to money for the paper.
In other news, it snowed in the mountains today. Once it's March I consider snow to be morally wrong if not downright evil.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
the pregnant pause
Lately I've been thinking a lot about ... pauses.
Sorry that was kind of bad, couldn't help it.
What I mean specifically is how long to pause between questions during interviews. I'm generally a fairly fast talker and I like to keep things moving along but there is also the balance of giving the interviewee enough time to respond. In general I try to wait through about three seconds of silence before asking the next questions, but sometimes this doesn't seem to be long enough. I've had a few interviews where I've been about to ask the next question only for the interviewee begin responding again. This is not good or bad, merely a matter of personal style, but I have to try to be aware of it and make sure I don't steamroll over them, which is harder to do when you're interviewing by phone.
In a recent interview I made sure to wait..and wait..and wait...before asking the next question.
All of this connects to Buddhism. How was that for a transition!
Deep, conscious listening is a core tenant in most Eastern religions and something I try to incorporate into my work. The idea is to be purely in the moment with the other person, not stuck in the past or the future.
Always a struggle for me. Plus when I'm interviewing, I also have to be formulating the next question, monitoring how much time we have left and counting out that three-second pause.
Sorry that was kind of bad, couldn't help it.
What I mean specifically is how long to pause between questions during interviews. I'm generally a fairly fast talker and I like to keep things moving along but there is also the balance of giving the interviewee enough time to respond. In general I try to wait through about three seconds of silence before asking the next questions, but sometimes this doesn't seem to be long enough. I've had a few interviews where I've been about to ask the next question only for the interviewee begin responding again. This is not good or bad, merely a matter of personal style, but I have to try to be aware of it and make sure I don't steamroll over them, which is harder to do when you're interviewing by phone.
In a recent interview I made sure to wait..and wait..and wait...before asking the next question.
All of this connects to Buddhism. How was that for a transition!
Deep, conscious listening is a core tenant in most Eastern religions and something I try to incorporate into my work. The idea is to be purely in the moment with the other person, not stuck in the past or the future.
Always a struggle for me. Plus when I'm interviewing, I also have to be formulating the next question, monitoring how much time we have left and counting out that three-second pause.
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