Lecture Five

Having explored, in the last two lectures, the innate value of text and imagery in the field of journalism, it was only natural to address the one remaining sensory element - sound.

A uniquely structured lecture, it required us to listen to two radio interview podcasts - one with Richard Fidler, a well-known ABC radio reporter, and the other with Steve Austin, a Brisbane-based broadcaster who currently hosts the Morning show on 612 ABC. As they spoke of their personal views on becoming radio journalists and the nature of their role, they agreed upon the fact that they can be viewed as doing a public service - asking questions the public seek answers to, probing contentious topics and harnessing raw emotion. Both reporters held the position that interviews on radio have the ability to carry much more impact than those in newspapers and magazines, as the listener is presented with not only what the answer is, but how it is answered. As Fidler communicates, radio is a much more "intimate" forum than many other journalistic mediums. It is free from the distractions of advertisements or competing headlines, thus able to focus completely on a single story, emotion, word or breath.

Both Fidler and Austin's associations with talk-back radio mean that their interaction with emotional interviews rather than mere informational interviews, are plentiful. Although this dialogue can be tricky to navigate at once probingly and respectfully, good reporting has the power to cover all shades and colours of human emotional experiences - from the happiness of the sporting record breaker to the helplessness of a mother whose child is missing. Both reporters maintain that in these journalistic environments, silence is as powerful as any spoken word. And this pertains to both parties. Silence from the interviewee can express a state of incommunicable turmoil or thoughtful pause, while the same from the interviewer can illustrate an environment of respectful listening and comfort. Fidler and Austin both place great value in employing silence in this regard.

There also seems to be great importance in putting aside the interviewer's personal agenda and approaching the subject both objectively and curiously. A genuine interest in what the person has to say will create a comfortable atmosphere, which increases the possibility for deeper, revealing responses. As Austin said, "a magic moment is when someone reveals something about themselves personally", where the interview flows so effortlessly that the knowledge of place and time is no longer necessary.

Radio is an arena in which one can let their guard down - but only if the interview is conducted effectively with utmost investigative grace.