ABSTRACT
Research helps the reader to establish credibility as a reporter. It takes a certain amount of courage to ask questions, particularly if the reader has never met the interviewee before. That interview will be more inclined to talk to reporters who have done their homework and gathered background information. Research improves accuracy. It helps untangle incorrect information and verify facts, dates, names, numbers and what sources have said previously. Remember, the reader owe it to the people interview to get it right. It has been said that the interview is a conversation with consequences. Here are two research strategies one short-term and one long-term for discovering background information when the reader know little or nothing about the person whom they will be interviewing. Clippings books provide a speedy update on stories. The time-honoured tradition of cutting and pasting the stories write for print media into scrapbooks is alive and well in most newsrooms.
