You don’t have to be from the New York Times or Le Monde to land an interview with someone important. Sometimes just being 16 is more impressive.

Journalism and activism can be powerful tools for change. Each week in our News Decoder Top Tips, we share advice from reporters, editors, writers and master storytellers on ways to better engage audiences and spur change. In this Top Tip, Marcy Burstiner, News Decoder’s educational news director, argues that teen journalists should try to interview people they think are important.

Top Tips are part of our open access learning resources. You can find more of our learning resources here. And learn how you can incorporate our resources and services into your classroom or educational program or by forming a News Decoder Club in your school.

There is a misconception that the bigger and more prestigious the news organization, the easier it is for reporters to get interviews. Sometimes that scares people away.

Asking people for interviews is the most nerve wracking part of a journalist’s job. Most journalists I’ve met are socially awkward. They were the kids in school who didn’t talk much. The best journalists are listeners, not talkers. 

Asking someone to sit for an interview is like asking someone out on a date. You hate it when they turn you down. That’s why it takes a bit of nerve to do it, something many teen reporters lack. Combine the fear of being rejected with the myth that you need to be from a prestigious organization to land the interview in the first place, and you get few student reporters trying for big interviews.

And that’s why it made national news that a high school reporter from Los Angeles was covering the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this month. 

Here is something I’ve discovered over the years. Many people who won’t agree to an interview with an experienced reporter might agree to one with a newbie, for several very different reasons. For one, they might think that a new reporter can be more easily manipulated. I found early on this went to my advantage. At 30 I looked 20 and way back then there was more overt sexism than there is now. Older men looked at me and assumed I was harmless and could be easily swayed.

Psychology and journalism

The other thing about young reporters is that when they talk to older people they often remind those folks of their children or grandchildren. It is psychologically difficult to say no to your grandchildren. 

And lastly, sometimes a young person will remind an older person of themselves at that age. They might want to help the younger them out in a way they were once helped or in a way they wish someone had helped them. 

The problem is that you tend not to figure this out until you age out of any advantages. Again, it wasn’t until I was 30 that I sensed an advantage. As a teen I was terrified of people. But as a student at journalism school I was able to interview renowned historian Howard Zinn, for an article on young people and the American Communist Party.

At News Decoder, we encourage teen journalists to seek interviews with experts for their articles or podcasts or videos. While at The Hewitt School in New York, Rachel Roth interviewed tennis champion Patrick McEnroe for a story on how athletes struggle with mental health issues. And while a student at the La Jolla Country Day School in California, Lucy Jaffee interviewed First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams for a story on free speech. 

My interview with Zinn and the interviews Roth and Jaffee did came out of connections we had. I was connected to Zinn through a professor I had who knew him. Roth found McEnroe through personal connections. And Jaffee was connected to Abrams through a News Decoder correspondent. 

Finding people to interview through personal and professional connections is a basic method of sourcing for journalists. Young people, however, often underestimate the size and value of their personal connections. That’s why I call it a secret power that teens have when it comes to journalism. It is so secret they don’t know it themselves. 

There’s the idea of six degrees of separation or the Kevin Bacon game — you can connect to almost anyone if you go from someone you know to someone they know and on and on. We all have friends and extended family and each of those have friends and extended family and colleagues and so on. But I think teens have a good chance of landing interviews even if they are reaching out with no connections.

Imagine you are a politician. You are used to getting calls from journalists. But you never get calls from teenagers wanting to interview you for a story. That’s impressive. I would bet that the teen has at least as great a chance of landing an interview if not a better chance. 

You don’t get do-gooder points as a politician by talking to a journalist. That’s part of your job. But giving time to a teen? That gives you all kinds of feel good points. 

So if you are a teen reporter, as many of the students are that we work with at News Decoder, don’t hesitate to reach out to the powerful and important. People want to help out bright, young kids. Use that to your advantage. 

Questions to consider:

1. Why does the author think that being a teenager is a superpower?
2. Why might someone be reluctant to be interviewed by an experienced journalist?
3. If you had the chance to interview someone important who would it be? What would you ask that person?

Marcy Burstiner is the educational news director for News Decoder. She is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication at the California Polytechnic University, Humboldt in California. She is the author of the book Investigative Reporting: From premise to publication.