Insisting on email interviews - bad idea?
Jon Greer blogs on B-Net - Catching Flack about when it’s not a good idea to insist on email interviews. He tells how the Ann Arbor News was writing a series about universities letting athletes take easy courses to maintain their scholarships:
The paper sought an in-person or phone interview with [University of Michigan] president Mary Sue Coleman, who would only agree to an email interview, which the paper declined. So as a result, the series ran without comment from the leader of the university.
Greer then offers his own take on some cases when it could pay for interviewees to insist on email interviews:
when time is short and the interview subject doesn’t have time for a verbal interview; when the journalist has a known track record as a bully, distorter or poor interviewer; and when the interview subject has something terrible to hide and wants to avoid as much scrutiny as possible.
Posted: May 29th, 2008 under Email Interviews, Missed Interviews, Setting up Interviews, Technology and Media Interviews.