The Lion's Pride vol. 2 (Jun. 2014) | Page 91

84 Other times you have to go to the court house to request documents. At the end of the day, it’s all about timing, making sure you talk to all the people that are involved in time for the deadline. Q) How available and cooperative are your informants? A) Most of the people are cooperative and available, only a few are uncomfortable. A part of being a journalist is talking to people enough, and really getting to know them. Sometimes getting them to feel comfortable is the key to a successful interview. Keep in mind that you always want to be professional. As a journalist you have to try and do the most interesting stories, being careful not to do every little thing that happens in the town. For example, establishing a relationship with the police department is an important resource to keep. Q) What kind of bias tends to be part of the data you collect? A) Well, biases are just people’s opinion. You have to figure out where the biases are and try to be objective. Sometimes, you have to take yourself out of the picture in order to make it more balanced and neutral. Not only that, you have to make