What is the toughest thing about being a reporter?

The toughest thing about being a reporter is getting people to tell you what you need to know in the way that you want to hear it. This is probably one of the main problems a reporter has besides setting up the appointment and making sure the interviewee keeps up his or her end of the bargain. 

Personally, and I'm positive that everyone in Newspaper can relate to this problem, I get very frustrated when the person I am interviewing gives unintelligent, vague or incoherent responses. Needless to say, not everyone is obligated to speak in complete sentences, either. When you are a reporter, you depend on written text to convey your message; this isn't television, so whoever is talking can't convey an emotion through tone. A good reporter looks for something quote-worthy, or"soundbites," as some might call them. The catch is, they have to be organic. You can't just force the words "Work hard, be nice" out of a principal's mouth. It wouldn't be natural to tell someone, "Hey, do you mind answering in complete sentences?" (although I do ask people that sometimes) either. If he or she were forced to answer in complete sentences, then that is probably not how he or she speaks in real life, but it would make the person seem more intelligent. I don't think it's a bad idea to aid someone in seeming more credible, but I think that natural speech conveys more of the person's personality in a story.

It takes a truly skilled reporter to coax a person into revealing information in a natural yet coherent manner. This is a skill I think all reporters must master in order to be the best that they can be.