One of the laments I hear most often in modern journalism education is that “student journalists don’t want to interview people.”
I dove into this phenomenon for my one-hour video training, ”Before Your Byline,” and I thought I’d share some of what I found.
Stranger aversion is often based on fear. Young people are afraid that a new person won’t enjoy a conversation, or won’t like them, or that they won’t have the skills to carry out a conversation or an interview.
Some older journalists and professors — who shall remain nameless — have taken to scolding younger reporters who don’t want to talk to people. They accuse them of laziness, but research suggests that people who fear conversations with strangers aren’t lazy. Instead, it might be that they fear a loss of control.
Calling people on the phone, knocking on doors, and approaching strangers at an event might feel foreign to them because our student journalists are digital natives, used to crafting communications across text, visuals, emojis, emoticons, graphics and filters. A phone call or face-to-face interaction with someone new feels like it demands instant mental and emotional availability — and that can feel like a loss of agency.
Students don’t need to be told they’re lazy. That’s unhelpful. Instead, they need to understand that they’re making a forecasting error — that typically, they think it’s going to be a lot worse than it actually is. The best way to get over a fear of stranger danger and telephobia is to practice with a friend or even AI, then work your way up to doing it in real life.
This Washington Post article has some helpful tips on combating general anxiety, a natural response for a young person being told their grade or performance rests on their ability to talk to strangers.
Interview anxiety is real and it’s important that we talk about it, not dismiss it as a youthful shortcoming.
This post comes from the College Journalism Newsletter. Subscribe to get it sent to you.
Leave a comment