NEWS INTERVIEW
– 198 candidates;
– 130 passed – 66 per cent

The examiners’ report:

The March 2007 interview was about a rescue operation for an injured man and his son who were stranded on a remote part of Greetham Moor.

Candidates were given background information about the two people involved plus basic details of the search team and how they were going about finding them.

Candidates were required to interview Roddy (Rachel) Bruce, the leader of the Thawnton Mountain Rescue Team, and get enough information to write a vigorous and well balanced story.

Two different approaches could be taken with this story and markers were happy to reward either. Some candidates focused their intro on the plight of the main characters and others opened with the emphasis on the search. Whichever approach was taken it was important to ensure both angles were covered in the first few paragraphs.

Some candidates did struggle with the timing issue. The father and son had become stranded on Thursday and had already spent a night in the open when their situation was discovered and the search operation launched on Friday. The interview was conducted on Friday afternoon but publication was not until the following day, Saturday morning. Because of the delay before printing it was impossible to know whether the rescue had been successful or not. It was important for candidates to reflect that unknown element by using language that qualified the situation. This error was penalised but it did not stop otherwise well-written stories gaining a pass mark.

A lot of detail was available and it was pleasing to see many candidates painting a vivid picture of the popular pub landlord and his livewire son. There were a number of other strands in the storyline that were worth exploring: the hiking trip and the outdoor skills of the father; the garbled emergency call to the boy’s sister that was not picked up for more than 12 hours; the injuries believed to have been sustained by the father; and the difficult weather conditions being endured by the victims and the rescue team.

In today’s society it is not uncommon for couples to be divorced and this was the case here.

It was disappointing to note that many candidates did not think it was worthy to note that the mother was desperately worried and was making her way to the area from her home in Liverpool. However, this omission was not heavily penalised.

There were a number of emotive quotes available to candidates who conducted a thorough and structured interview. Markers were looking for at least three strong quotes and rewarded those candidates who used them to add pace and rhythm to their stories. A good shorthand note is required to be a good interviewer but minor variations in quotes were not penalised.

Being a good reporter involves mastering many skills but a good interview technique is the foundation on which all stories are built and that is the case with this exam. Although the interview itself is not assessed, good stories will only come from thorough interviews. Overall, markers were looking for stories that had a strongly-worded opening with good use of dynamic verbs and adjectives, a key quote used early followed by an organised, logical approach with a mix of accurate quotes and reported speech. Many candidates achieved this goal and candidates and their trainers and editors should be applauded for this.

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