Wanted: media trainer, experienced…

Communication World, April-May, 1998 by Jeff Ansell

So, how does a company go about identifying the media trainer who'll be the right fit for them?

Certainly, there's no shortage of instructors out there who specialize in teaching people how to do media interviews. They include former reporters, as well as public relations consultants, many of whom have never reported news in their careers.

Are ex-reporters necessarily better media trainers? Admittedly, I'm biased on this point. As a former journalist, I believe a background in news reporting is essential experience for anyone calling themselves a media trainer. Frankly, it takes one to know one.

Media consultants who never reported news will undoubtedly argue the point - but the fact is, former journalists instinctively know what questions to ask and what clips or soundbites a reporter will use.

Good reporters get newsmakers to say what they were not planning to say. So does a good media trainer. Media trainers with reporting experience understand better just how news stories get put together.

Still, journalism experience alone does not make for a better media trainer. When it comes to asking tough, challenging questions in a media training program, it doesn't matter whether the person asking was a reporter in a previous life. What does matter is whether the trainer can help newsmakers learn to answer tough questions in ways that penetrate the media filter.

What to Look for in a Media Trainer

The professional background of the trainer, of course, is just one of the things you should be looking at if you're in the market for media training. Others include:

* A trainer who understands the issues facing your company or your industry

* An opportunity to brief the trainer beforehand on issues and participant profiles

* Realistic interview scenarios to reflect a company's good news and bad news (you don't want media trainers to scare your spokespeople by only asking tough-guy questions)

* Insightful, challenging and/or curve-ball questions and interview scenarios

* Exposure to a variety of interview styles

A comprehensive media training program should provide participants with a good understanding of content and context in media encounters.

By content, I'm talking about the actual message that you want to communicate, beyond just the creation of snappy 10-second soundbites.

Effective media skills for senior executives, spokespeople and newsmakers don't come naturally. In fact, the rules of the road for media interviews contradict dynamics of everyday conversation.

In ordinary chit-chat, people simply respond to questions, without necessarily trying to forward a particular agenda. Good media training teaches newsmakers to be responsive to media inquiries, and to advance their messages at the same time.

Even in the most pleasant, straightforward interviews, it is still a challenge to ensure that you are quoted in context. Sometimes, reporters and editors manipulate news stories to serve varying agendas, and truth and perspective can become casualties.

Mastering the media encounter is best achieved by understanding how reporters edit stories.

At the simplest level, journalists interview newsmakers and then decide which quotes to report. In some cases, we get insightful, informed reporting.

In other cases, however, we get reportage that bears little resemblance to the story newsmakers thought they were telling, bolstering the oft-heard criticism that reporters are people who separate the wheat from the chaff in interviews, and then report the chaff.

Many people in the news complain that they have been wounded by journalists. But the truth is most of these injuries are self-inflicted.

Controlling the Interview

With that point in mind, here are 10 basic tips to better control content and context in media encounters:

1 Know beforehand what you want to say in interviews

2 Keep your language simple

3 Use facts to back up your points

4 Tell the truth

5 Admit bad news, and explain how you're fixing the problem

6 Speak in short sentences

7 Keep your comments positive

8 Don't repeat negatives

9 Never speculate

10 Don't wait for the right questions to be asked

Media training workshops work best when the programs are custom-tailored to a client's needs. Companies that don't already have a media strategy in place can use media training programs to help identify weak spots, and develop strategies, tactics and messages.

Meaningful media training programs feature realistic interview simulations and quality analysis of interviews. Participants ideally should be learning how to credibly articulate their values to a skeptical community.

Media training is, of course, not a substitute for positive public policy - but good public policy by itself won't do the job anymore. Media now demand greater private and public sector accountability and today's spokespeople had better be astute communicators.

No amount of spin can turn bad news into good. However, a strong understanding of the way news is gathered and edited can help spokespeople become more effective at managing encounters with media.