Media Training Articles
Media Training
It's a mistake to regard media training as just an opportunity to put course participants through their paces in front of a press or broadcast journalist. In other words, see how they perform and leave it at that.
This is clearly a priority, but there's scope for more.
As the training progresses, an experienced tutor will point out the plusses and minuses in a person's performance in a press, TV or radio interview.
This will focus on aspects like: general demeanour in front of the camera; body language when face -to-face with a newspaper journalist; whether the interviewee is marshalling their points skilfully, given the limited time that is generally the case in broadcast news - and much more.
As the course progresses, however, there very often arises a sense among those attending that the overall position being taken by the company or organisation in question is not watertight i.e. it doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of an experienced interviewer firing off direct, yet obvious, questions.
Points can surface during the course, in particular during feedback sessions, which by common consent require the company or organisation to go back to the drawing board in order to tweak or re-work some key messages.
This can be a helpful result of media training in two particular cases - whenever a company is preparing for a major announcement or problem on their hands, and of course as part-and-parcel of regular crisis training.
In other words, key messaging can sound robust and comprehensive when drawn up on paper, but doesn't pass its MOT until tested in the heat of battle.
