Q & A & Q
: Jay Rosen has another blog interview up, this with Merrill Brown, founding editor of MSNBC.com, late of Real.com, and a good guy.
One minor but important observation about Jay’s email interview technique: Most times when I get email questions, they all come in one lump and my answers return in a lump. Jay is asking one question, waiting for the answer, and then following up with appropriate questions. That may be more laborious and time-consuming, but it’s clearly a better way to interview when you want to get more than simple answers to simple questions. In fact, I’d say that can be a better method for interviews than face-to-face over a notebook or tape recorder, for this Q & A & Q via email allows both participants to actually think about what they’re saying and to respond to each other with more probing questions and answers. It’s no way to trip somebody up, if that’s your interview goal, but it is a way to get depth.
