duck-shaped pain

8 February 2002
Pecking At Worms In The Dirt

Eep. I am such a chicken.

As stated in my previous entry, I'm supposed to do some interviews for this paper I have to write. This involves me having to call some people up cold, in the middle of their busy work days, and ask them all sorts of involved questions re: their feelings about museum exhibit design.

I just can't do this. Just the thought of explaining who I am, why I'm doing this, and what I want seems too involved, not something you can tell someone in 30 seconds or less. Interviewing people like this is one of the things that made me decide that journalism wasn't for me. I was brilliant at producing reviews and columns or other things where the research involved looking at something , listening to a record, reading a book, or just staring off into space and thinking about an issue. But anything that involved calling people up and asking them questions was something I just couldn't do. (Or if I did them, they ended up being completely half-assed.)

Interviewing people face-to-face is something I can do. There, I'm reasonably sure that I'm not bothering the interview subject, and I can see what they're doing and tell how they're reacting to what I ask them. For example, I have to do an hour-long oral history interview with a campus figure later this semester, and I'm not nervous about that one at all. It's in person, in someone's office, at a predetermined time, so it's easy.

But I hate talking on the phone, period, unless it's the only way I can talk to someone, like a faraway friend or relative. Especially cold calling. I'm always convinced that I'm interrupting someone during the most important part of their day (no matter how much they assure me that I'm not), and I can't see how they're reacting -- the expressions on their face, what they're doing with their hands, or even what they look like. Not being able to picture what someone looks like in my head is really bothersome, for various inscrutable reasons.

The upside here is that this isn't required for the paper -- just a nice addition. Another plus is that none of the people I've been trying to reach has been in. So maybe I'll not have to do the interviews on the basis that they were unavailable. I can only hope.

Now you know what a chicken I am.

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