Charlie Rose, award-winning anchor of “CBS This Morning” with more than 40 years of experience in journalism, will receive the 2015 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism on Monday. He spoke to a group of ASU journalism students about his experiences on Sunday afternoon.
During his conversation with Arizona Horizon host Ted Simons, they discussed interview preparation and how to disarm your subject. Rose said that interviews should tell a story while engaging your subject.
He explained that just asking questions will not engage your subject enough to bring out their best answers: If the person you are interviewing is engaged, they will give you more emotion, passion and authenticity. He likes to ask short questions.
In a Q&A session after the lecture, Rose said that he keeps a list of questions to guide the conversation, using it as a “road map.” He always keeps questions in mind in case an interview is not going as planned, and often goes to “what is the most important lesson you’ve learned?”
He said that he knows each of the questions, and then uses spontaneity after that.
“Before you do research on who it is you are planning on interviewing, think about who it is you are facing,” Rose said.
He said that the interviewer should ask themselves “what do I want to know from my natural curiosity?”
Rose told the audience members to “never stop learning” but to make sure they understand the fundamentals of reporting — making sure to find their voice in writing.
“One piece of advice that I learned from his speech today was to never stop learning,” said Maddy Ryan, a sophomore at the Cronkite School. “I found it very inspirational because if we choose to continue to be active learners, we can become great story tellers because we continue to choose to keep our minds open to new things.”
Grace Fuerte, a journalism freshman, said that she was interested in coming to the event because of how significant Rose is in journalism, as well as hearing him talk about his experience.
“The thing that stood out the most to me was when he said that you can’t wait for the world to come to you, you have to go out to the world,” Fuerte said. “That was very impactful for me because he was really right.”
Contact the reporter at Conall.Casey-Waid@asu.edu.
