Video response- Brian Klein

In watching these two videos, I consider myself fortunate that I watched the Harvard interview before that of the video explaining ethnography, in that it allowed me to better understand the concepts which Brandon Stanton was speaking of.

The main takeaway I took from the Harvard interview was that it s necessary, when interviewing someone, to take one’s own agenda out of the equation.  The way Stanton thought of it, if he was trying to mold an interview to conform to a political message he wished to spread, he would be pruning potentially crucial facts away even as they were being said.   This idea coincides with a large portion of the general theme of Ethnography, and that was to try to better understand people, and do so from their own perspective.  The overarching narrative results in Stanton appearing to be the prime example of all the skills presented in the Ethnography video at their zenith.  He gives off this impression as he tells of his ability to mull out honest versus doctored information.  The essence of the Ethnography video was effectively describing the most efficient ways to obtaining this useful information.  Those provided included gain rapport, keep emotions at a normal level and to choose a non-intimidating environment.  My impression was that by mastering these skills, Stanton had mastered the art of gaining rapport, so that his subjects would speak truthfully to him.

Another interesting thing which these videos provided was a contrast between Ethnography done correctly versus incorrectly.  The man in the Ethnography video who kept pointing out his own flaws, such as being patronizing, uninterested, or asking leading or compound questions, provided a contrast to the skill spoke of by Stanton.  This illustrated to me what the incorrect actions that Brandon had managed to weed out were, so that he could be confidant that he would be capable of obtaining the true story of his subjects.

The primary takeaway from these videos is that the goal of this line of work, be in narrative journalism or ethnography, is to faithfully represent the information obtained in the manner in which the subject would like it to be presented, so that one’s own opinions or impressions or agendas are not the primary focus of the work being done.