The Good Interview

Place:                   University of Southern Denmark, Odense

Director:              Søren Kaster & Benedicte Strøm

Period:                 The meeting was held in november 2005

Course language:Danish

Prerequisites:     To be considered a participant in this course, you must send us a layman’s report as well as an instruction for experiment subjects, all from an intervention study that you have been involved in. (max 200 words each) Besides this, please enclose your curriculum vitae. These texts will provide the basis for a personal interview that will help you realize your strengths and weaknesses. Please send this to DIRAC, Att.: Tina Ludvig, IST, Clinical Pharmacology, Winslowparken 19, 2., DK–5000 Odense C.

Background:       There is a great focus on research – the results and the methods. The media wants to know what is going on, and the researcher wants to share the extraordinary results he/she has reached, but this is where the similarity ends. The researcher and the journalist do not speak the same language nor do they understand the world of the other; therefore a lot of misunderstanding occurs. This often leaves one of the parties (very often the researcher) feeling stabbed in the back because of the way the journalist has interpreted what he/she said. The painted picture is often entirely different from what the researcher expected.

Purpose:              The main purpose of this course is to enable the course participants with the communicative tools to avoid misunderstandings when being interviewed. The participants get an insight to the media world and how the journalist works. The main focus is on interviews and how the participants manage to communicate their message to the journalist.

Contents:    §         Basic rules in communication

§         Narrative technique

§         Fundamental rules in interviews

§         Building up your relation to the media

§         Entering into “contracts” with a journalist

§         The work methods and priorities of the press

§         Personal integrity as a tool in communication

§         The importance of body language, language and voice