Posts Tagged ‘case studies’
On not making assumptions
I wrote this ages ago – the 8th of March 2009, to be precise. For some reason I didn’t post it, just left it sitting around in the drafts folder until I found it just now. I think it makes a good point, so here you go.
There’s a piece of advice I would give new journalists (or journalists who want to hear my advice, or anyone else who is remotely interested in the end of this sentence). It’s something I try to always have in mind, but often forget. And it’s very simple.
Just because people read newspapers and magazines, don’t assume they understand what goes into them.
And by that, I mean that even if the person you’re dealing with reads every issue of such-and-such paper or magazine, don’t assume they notice what is inside it and what is not. If you’re dealing with a PR, don’t assume they’ve paid any attention to what format the publication takes, or what news it does or does not cover, or what audience it is aimed at.
If it’s a case study, you need to tread even more carefully. You can never, ever assume that they understand how any of this works. Oh, we all think we know and anticipate and plan for this, but it can still go wrong.
I’ve been doing some first person real life pieces lately. I always make sure people understand what they are agreeing to, whatever avenue has led me to them (friends of friends, for example, or PRs). I want to know that they understand the level of exposure involved, the fact their full name will be used, they may need to have their photograph taken, etc. I don’t want anyone I interview to feel they’ve been persuaded to do something without understanding what’s involved.
But even so, I can find myself in the middle of an interview and have the case study suddenly mention that she’s not quite sure about it being so public, actually (even though she came through a PR who had asked for people happy to discuss the thing publicly). So I explain that her name will go on the piece, as already discussed, and she says: “My first name?” despite having previously agreed to her full name being used. And it transpires that she doesn’t really understand why her name would need to be on it at all.
For me, the question of whether she was willing to be named was one of the most important I’d asked. But she didn’t know that. She had no idea it was important, let alone a dealbreaker. It’s certainly made me think about how I explain things.
