Background

     In previous interviews, I didn't know what I was asking about. I asked rudimentary questions that were probably answered on Google.
    For the first interview I did for a news story, I interviewed a few people from the UNH survey center. I did a phone interview and two in-person interviews. Lined up in my notebook, I etched out questions. Each person I planned to interview had maybe 10 to 20 questions to answer (or not).
    More than half of them were aimed at what the survey center usually did for operations. I had some background information because my friend worked at the UNH survey center, but other than that, my knowledge was non-existent. The story worked because the news was how much the survey center had to poll around the Presidential Election. The comparisons worked. The knowledge was helpful.
    The last story I wrote had to do with gluten allergies. I interviewed restaurants in downtown Durham, N.H. I wanted to know about the gluten free movement and how much it was affecting restaurants. As a person with a gluten sensitivity, I realized I didn't know enough about it before I went. I asked a lot of basic questions that didn't help me write the news part of the story later. The background didn't help.
    The reason I bring all this up is because news writers always seem to be informed. In an article from The Boston Globe about Obama and congress by Jim Kuhnhenn:

This president, like recent ones before him, has gone to the public before in hopes of persuading lawmakers. It hasn’t always proved a winning tactic. President Clinton failed to use the public to win support for his health care overhaul. President George W. Bush was unable to make changes to Social Security in his second term.

     For my next story, I tried to be more informed and researched USPS online before trying to ask questions about them. Some of the questions I asked were still basic and I didn't end up using the answers, but in the end, I learned a lot and had more important material to work with. I guess being informed works for me.