When casually addressing this topic with reporters, the answer quite often seems to be, “it depends.” I wanted a better answer, so I surveyed nearly 100 reporters of varying experience and skill level. What I found is that while it may “depend,” most of you are in agreement about what it depends on.
Step 1: Ask reporters what they do in varying situations when interruption may be necessary.
For those of you that didn’t take the survey, I asked reporters to answer what they typically do in each of the following situations with regard to interrupting:
1) If someone is speaking extremely fast and you are not getting the complete record, what do you typically do?
2) If multiple parties are speaking at the same time and you are not getting the complete record, what do you typically do?
3) If you cannot understand one or more of the parties due to their accent, or they are speaking too softly and you are not fully comprehending and digesting their words, what do you typically do?
I offered the following options:
- Interrupt immediately
- Wait until break to clarify
- Rely on your audio back-up to fix later
- Other
I also gave an opportunity to comment on each question, and also asked about years of experience and the speed they’re comfortable writing at. Here are some of my key findings. First the easy stuff:
- Almost no one thinks you should wait until break if you are not getting the record, regardless of the reason.
- Those who answered “other” basically said “all of the above” or “it depends,” so I have left out the “other” category while digesting the numbers; thus why the totals do not add up to 100%.
- Nearly everyone agrees you should interrupt immediately if you can’t understand what is being said due to heavy accents or if someone is speaking too softly.
- One very interesting suggestion for hard to hear witnesses was to use headphones during the depo and listen to the audio feed directly from your microphones since you can turn up the volume.
- Most agree you should interrupt if the parties are speaking over one another.
Now something really interesting I discovered when filtering the data between the less/more experienced reporters and the slower/faster writers:
There is a definite difference of opinion on how to handle fast talkers. The more experienced and/or faster writers nearly unanimously agree if it’s too fast, interrupt immediately. The less experienced and/or slower writers are far more likely to rely on the audio back-up rather than interrupting.
Interestingly, when reading through the comments, and there were tons of them, I noticed common themes from the veterans which were:
COMPETENCE & CONFIDENCE
The most experienced, fastest writers commented often about the importance of immediately establishing your presence as a competent, skilled reporter on every job as the best way to deal with the issue of interrupting. Simply put, if you establish yourself immediately at all jobs as a true professional, then if/when you need to interrupt, the parties will know you’re not crying wolf and are more likely to be sympathetic to your plight.
(FYI – in a future blog, I will explore what it takes to become that competent, confident reporter that commands respect from the parties and interrupts effortlessly; stay tuned.)
In fairness, there is another theory to be explored as to why the younger, less experienced reporters are less likely to interrupt when they can’t keep up. The less experienced reporters are also most likely the younger reporters, as in the Gen X reporters. These Gen X’ers have had the luxury of audio back-up for their entire careers, so they’re simply embracing the technology, right?
Well, maybe. But while there is likely something to that argument, I would suggest that only partially explains what is going on. With regard to relying on audio back-up or not, the inability to “keep up” was the only scenario where there were noticeable differences in the responses between those of greater and lesser experience. If reliance on the audio back-up is a generational thing, then why don’t the younger, less experienced reporters rely on their audio back-up for other scenarios as well?
Which brings me right back to this competence/confidence thing. Most likely, the less experienced reporters are embarrassed when they can’t keep up, so they aren’t speaking up.
So should you interrupt? The answer overwhelmingly seems to be YES!
Ok, if we know interruptions are inevitable and necessary, then, of course, we must ask ourselves how best to interrupt. That definitely seems to be a personal thing, but there are some consistent themes. I highly suggest reading through the comments, as there are so many great ideas.
Highlights include: be polite, and no sarcasm – UNLESS you have a killer personality and/or sense of humor, in which case, if you’re witty enough, a little humor may be just what the doctor ordered. Putting your hands in the air seems to resonate as well.
Good luck!
