CONDUCTING TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS
By Elizabeth Bardsley
I have done numerous telephone interviews, and they are my favorite way to conduct an interview. For the most part you have a focused subject, and you typically get a cleaner recording for transcription.
One must, however, consider legalities before conducting a telephone interview as they are governed by both federal and state laws. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Illinois are termed all-party consent states, meaning that a call cannot be recorded without the consent of all parties. Refer to https://www.justia.com/50-state-surveys/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations/ for a complete list of state-by-state laws.
For fact-based or fact-inspired projects, I always recommend asking permission to record the calls; if, for some specific reason this is not going to be the case in your particular instance, it may be prudent to consult legal counsel in advance.
Again, digital recorders can truly be a writer's best friend as they are fundamentally easy to use, offer an enormous amount of recording time and the audio can easily be transferred to a computer or a flash drive. For telephone recording, an adaptor can typically be utilized to connect a digital recorder to a landline or cell phone.
In our office we currently use Zoom for telephone interviews, which provides a very easy option to record and save files. However, be aware that Zoom offers different plans and some of those have a limited recording time and a limit on how long the files will be saved if not downloaded.
It is important to start your recording with identifying information:
Identify yourself
State the date and the project that the interview pertains to
Ask everyone on the call to state their name and announce that you have permission to record the conversation