How to report for rural communities

By Martin Field

"The interview is crucial. A story can list the facts, but without any quotes it's just a collection of dot points. And that is not interesting, not credible: it's not a news story," says journalist Murray Hansen.

Hansen has reported for Queensland regional daily The Toowoomba Chronicle and New South Wales rural newspaper The Land, before moving to Canberra to work in the communications area in party politics and then the public service. The common thread through Hansen's varied career is writing for rural communities.

Hansen is quite comfortable with rural society: he was raised on a Queensland property, and until he went to university he regarded towns of a few hundred inhabitants as being bewilderingly crowded.

"Working with the rural community you have to be aware of sensitivities. If you offend their sensitivities the whole community will close shop, and if an individual is unhappy with you the news will spread hundreds of miles in minutes," Hansen says.

Part of the skill of reporting is being able to get people to talk to you. Hansen says that it is "quite common for people to not want to talk in an interview. A lot of people get nervous- after you have set up the interview they have a lot of time to sit and think about the possible outcomes of the interview, and they get nervous."

Hansen prefers to interview in person, rather than by phone, and the time between arranging and conducting an interview certainly can be long when working in rural areas: "Sometimes I would drive for three hours to get to an interview, and then three hours back," he says.

His interview technique includes putting the person at ease with an informal chat, in which he lets them know that he already has some background knowledge, and then signalling the start of the formal interview by picking up his notepad and pen. "Ethically I will never quote something that was said when I wasn't taking notes," Hansen says.

If the source mentions something of interest outside of the formal interview, Hansen uses careful questioning to try to get them to repeat what they have said earlier. Preparing careful questions is the key to a successful interview.

"If I've got any contacts I phone them for background. Then I check previous editions of the newspaper, or do an electronic search for background material. That process should identify the person I want to interview, and I would discreetly check their background," Hansen says. "It's always easier to interview someone when you have targeted the key points."

"The single most important point is to listen to the answers when interviewing someone: The best quotes in an interview are often generated by supplementary questions leading on from a previous answer."