Interview Assignment
Basic biographical information can be tricky to find all in one place. If you're lucky and there is a personal website (think political candidate, or business owner), you may get enough to give you a solid picture of a person, but more likely, you'll need to piece it together from a few different sources. Some places to start:
- Does your interviewee have a website?
- Have they been interviewed by a news organization?
- Are they noteworthy enough to have a page in Wikipedia?
The goal is to learn as much as you can about them, in order to have a whole picture of who they are.
- WikipediaThis can be a great source for biographical information because Wikipedia prohibits people from writing their own entry (conflict of interest)
- Biography.comGreat for a variety of celebrities and public figures.
A search engine (Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go), will be the best tool for this type of information. You'll want to find information about the person's job, company, industry, professional or hobby associations, and news related to it. Use fewer words and phrases rather than full sentences, and search for the company's website, industry information, professional organizations or associations.
- LinkedInLook for the person's professional profile and their company's page.
- New York Times (Current, 1980-present)Articles from the New York Times from 1980-present. For articles prior to 1980, see the New York Times (Historical Collection) Database.
- Los Angeles Times (1996-present)Los Angeles Times articles from 1996-present. For articles published prior to 1996, see the Los Angeles Times (Historical) Database.
Social media can be a great place to learn about your interviewee, including some biographical information. However, the info you find in a social media post should be fact checked before your interview.