Having a hard time getting people to comment/interview

At times I find it very difficult to convince people to allow me to use their name and quote in my articles. I have interviewed and spoken with a lot of people on the street, in the hopes of getting a good quote from them.

I first tried to introduce myself as a student from Howard University followed by me letting them know that I was writing an article about a specific topic/subject and I would then explain what direction my story was going in. At times this method worked, but I felt the direction of the interview started to go in another direction. Sometimes, the person that I am interviewing would begin to ask me questions about my major and what I wanted to after I graduated. So then I started introducing myself as a reporter for the Howard University News Service and they treated me like I was a professional and our conversation ran smoothly.


I've decided that depending on the situation and the type of story that I am covering I would pick a way in how I wanted to introduce myself to get good quotes from them.