Media training: listen to the questions

I was media training in London with one of my top PR agency clients last week and thought I'd have a little game. A major part of the session is always me "dummy interviewing" the delegates; I interview, I record, I feed back, they get a copy of the recording. Normally I ask sensible questions but last week I had some fun. "What are you going to do about the problem of [and here I named a piece of technology that wasn't a problem in the slightest, actually it was a massive boost]?"

The delegate tried to answer. She tried to twist reality to offer me the benefit of the doubt, to make it sound as if I knew what I was talking about and we could have a sensible question. It came from a good place - politeness and empathy.

The problem was that if she'd done this in a real life interview she'd have left a misconception unaddressed. It could have appeared in a written or video interview and she'd have been seen confirming it. Either readers/viewers would have assumed she didn't know what she was talking about or they'd assume she knew something they didn't and they were wrong. It has the potential to get very messy very quickly.

Always listen carefully to the questions the media is asking. There may well be some misunderstandings, assumptions, prejudgements in there and you don't want them appearing in print. If you feel less secure than that, make sure you have someone from your PR agency with you and they'll pick up on stuff that just doesn't make sense. There is nothing impolite about disagreeing with the premise or any assumptions the journalist may have made; quite the reverse, if you correct us then the resulting article will make us look better-informed.

Quoted in the press

People sometimes ask me (note: when someone starts a paragraph like that they often mean "I wish people would ask me so I could answer..."), if you're so good at helping people with communication, when have you ever been quoted in the press other than writing your own pieces as a journalist?

So although our speciality at Clapperton Media is training business spokespeople it was a delight to be asked for my view for this item in PR Week on the kerfuffle (technical term) around how ITV handled the Philip Schofield issue. As you'll gather, I believe the seeds of the difficulty were sown many years ago:

Video tip: Don't overstate

It's always important not to overstate your case. Yesterday I put up one of my video tips on what happened when a delegate at a media training session told me they were going to market to literally everybody. I still remember the PR agency person in the room not quite daring to put her head in her hands but it was close.

LinkedIn won't let me link to a video that's already on the system - that would be far too easy - but you can find it by clicking here .

Team focus: Martine

A great session with recently-recruited trainer Martine Croxall a few weeks ago focused on presentation rather than media, and it was terrific. One of the joys of working with a team is that you get different perspectives.

I often compare presentations and speeches to high culture like Doctor Who (start with an exciting bit, finish with an exciting bit or satisfying resolution and don't let it sag in the middle), sometimes adding a bit of James Bond (the clever thing about the Bond films is the pre-credit sequence; it's action-packed, eye-catching and doesn't necessarily relate to the rest of the film).

Martine preferred to talk about Socrates and other ancient Greeks and the classic structures of debate, counter-argument and everything else. I don't think my note-taking pen has ever moved more quickly and the clients got loads out of it.

If you'd like to work with her too, read on!

Need some help?

We can help your clients with with interview skills, crisis communications or presentations, feel free to check the website:

...or just contact me on LinkedIn or my assistant Lindsay, [email protected].

Thanks - see you next time!