SiteYou ask, we answer: Interviews by IM
Katrina asks, “Recently, an interviewee requested an interview be conducted via instant messenger. Ultimately, we conducted a phone interview, but I was left wondering: How would quotes from an instant messenger interview be attributed? Can they be enclosed in quotation marks or should they be paraphrased? For that matter, what about email interviews? The only clear guidelines I can find are for in person, phone, and book sources.”
It’s funny: I know in the last year or so I’ve read stories where I’ll come across a quote that’s followed by, “… wrote John Smith in an e-mail” or “said John Smith during a phone call from his home in Paris.” Speaking of France, I believe I did a story for the Boston Globe in the last six months where I made a similar disclosure (I interviewed the subject of my story, who lives in Lyon, during a phone call. I know the Times’ folks are a little sensitive about truth in reporting, so that’s probably why I did it).
I’d look to my editor to make the judgment call. Some magazines/newspapers won’t give a fig how the quote was obtained, so you’ll be free to say, “… Smith said” and leave it at that. Personally, that’s what I prefer, but I’m not Boss of the Universe. (Yet. I keep telling my husband it’s next on my list of goals.) As long as the source “said” it, who cares how his words were communicated? I suppose if those words got to you by carrier pigeon, that would be interesting. But I digress, yet again.
What say the rest of you? How do you handle quotes gathered from e-mail, IMing, or carrier pigeons? Tell us below!
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