I recently began my first placement with Dai Sport, a Welsh sporting website run by Graham Thomas. I decided I wanted to go on placement with Dai Sport as when I graduate I want to work as a written journalist, producing content similar to what is produced on the Dai Sport website. Also, Graham Thomas is one of the most well respected journalists in the country and the opportunities that this placement provided were very appealing to me and I felt they could stand me in good stead for when I graduate.
I wrote my first piece for Dai Sport about Wales qualifying for the Hockey World Cup. I wrote this as I had attended the qualifying tournament and Graham believed it would make a nice piece on the site. I got in touch with the Hockey Wales press officer and she put me in touch with the chief executive of Hockey Wales and captain, Lewis Prosser.
I sent both of them the questions via email and they responded through email. Doing this piece of work has taught me that interviewing people via email isn’t a good way to do it as you’re unable to ask follow up questions and that the responses you receive are normally quite bland and repetitive. As this was my first piece on placement for Dai Sport I have noted that in future I will always make an effort to interview people via phonecall/zoom or in person. This is because you build a bond with your interviewee and you’re more likely to receive better answers and can subsequently come up with better follow up questions.
I believe that by doing my interviews via email it didn’t allow this piece of work to reach it’s full potential which it would have done with better quotes.
However, I will learn from my mistake and ensure all future interviews are conducted face to face or over the phone.
AWC SPORT 