Controlled Dialogue – Active Listening for Interviewing

Divide the participants' group into different pairs. Select topics to discuss (see section tip for Trainers for topics related to EMAC specific learning outcome) and try to offer different points of view.

Then let them talk with each other in different parts of the room or different rooms.

If participant A starts to talk, participant B has to wait till the end and then participant B starts their intervention with a summary of what participant A said before he/she answers or follows the topic. Then A has to wait and summarise B’s and so on so-for for about 10 minutes.

The Trainer is checking around to give short feedback to the quality of the listening and summarising.

Afterwards the group feedback about how the participants interacted, the terminology used, and the use of stereotypes or generalisations in the discussion.

ASSESSING LEARNING OUTCOMES

The trainer will feedback on the observation during the exercise
Participants will evaluate the experience of listening and summarising:

• What words were used by the two participants? Did they use the same terminology or did they change them.
• Would the discussion content, concepts and terminology have been any different if the people taking part would have been part of the minority group affected by the issue?

Ask participants what have they’ve learnt from the activity and how it relates to the editorial work:

• The listening element of the activity for interviewing skills
• The importance of diverse voices to avoid stereotypes and generalisations in the production of media content.

Participants will discuss in pairs a particular topic.

The activity focus on listening and summarising skills, so each person in the pair will have to listen and summarise the other person arguments before presenting their own.

It will be helpful for interviewing, comprehension, and listening skills.

Participants will understand

The use of strategies to avoid stereotypes in reporting and communicating in the media.

INFRASTRUCTURE

A big room or two rooms to facilitate the discussion.

MATERIALS

none

DURATION

Introduction+Dialogues+Feedback-Round: 30 min max

RECOMMENDED NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

10 to 14

TIPS FOR TRAINERS

This is a good introductory activity for the interviewing module. The trainer could highlight the importance of listening to your interviewee and conduct the interview as a dialogue and not restricted to a pre-arrange set of questions.

Furthermore you could use it for awareness rising in the field of communication as an act of understanding each other.

To reach the specific learning outcome, it might be an idea to suggest the participants to select topics related to minority issues and that are currently in the news.