Journalism Interview Project Essay Examples

On October 15, I attended the ‘Sustaining Campus and Dialogue” event that was happening at the Lyric Theatre, 22 Main St in downtown Frostburg. After the event, I engaged one of the attendants of the event Jim Williams (who is actually one of my best friends in real life) in an extensive interview. The interview took place the day after the event and I must admit that it was very exciting and informative. The content of the interview ranged from personal information, the views and experiences at the event, things learnt or knowledge acquired from the event amongst others.
/> The first thing I sought to establish from Jim pertained to the involvement in the event. I wanted to find out who was involved in the meeting. Jim stated that there were a lot of participants including FSU students, community residents, University leaders, local officials and others.
After establishing the identity of the event’s participants, I asked Jim what he thought about the whole dialogue. He was clearly impressed with the event and he gave it a positive review by stating that it was “very enlightening and had a smooth flow of information”.
Later, I asked Jim the most important thing he had learnt at the event. He told me that he had learnt of important things there but the one thing that he felt was most important was that was his realization that Frostburg State University is very knowledgeable and concerned about the community environment that relates to the interaction between the campus students and the locals. Jim supported his answer by once again making reference to the participants of the dialogue event. He observed that the dialogue brought together students, local residents, university as well as local officials to engage in intensive dialogue about various issues and craft new opportunities coalition building and collaborative problem solving around the Frostburg area.
The next question I asked Jim pertained to the meeting place or the venue of the dialogue event. I asked Jim what he thought of the venue that is the Lyric Theatre on 22nd Street. He was of the opinion that the venue was an “outstanding meeting place”. Regardless of the old age of the Lyric theatre, Jim thought that the place was still in good shape. He reminisced on the days when he used to go to watch movies at the theater which was at that time not in a good condition. According to him, there seemed to be quite an improvement since the days of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Wild Bill amongst others.
I also asked Jim what he thought could be done to improve the dialogue. Jim started by referring to an incident where one of the presenters was writing notes on a flip chart while his colleague was presenting at the same time. Jim felt this to be quite disrespectful and was an area that could be improved on. In addition, he felt that the group meetings were paced very close to each other after the presentation. In fact, the conversations going on in one group could be heard in another group therefore creating a distraction. Again, this was an area that needed an improvement.
The final question I asked Jim was whether he would participate in another event of such kind. His stand out answer was “probably not”. He explained how he was convinced to attend the event by a friend. Being not a permanent resident of Frostburg, Jim felt that there was not much he could contribute to it although he was very fast to acknowledge the fact that it was indeed a very good program.
At the end, I can confidently say that the interview was a success and I obtained a lot of information about the event and I was also in the process able to hone my journalistic skills.