Five Reasons to Take Media Interview Training

Given the importance organizations place on generating press coverage, having a strategy and trained professionals assigned to critical tasks is vital. Preparing people who will speak to journalists is critical to this effort, for five reasons.

1. Media interview training helps people cultivate the skills to engage in more productive give-and-take with reporters. Being interviewed by a journalist is not simply a matter of routinely answering questions, while taking a defensive posture. It is incumbent on the spokespersons to take the initiative to tell the story of the organization, from their perspective. To this end, spokespersons need to be familiar with the way journalists work, the editorial environments in which they operate, the types of questions they are likely to ask, and their individual backgrounds, among other topics.

2. Trained spokespersons help an organization get more media coverage. Being interviewed by a reporter does not mean that the person will be quoted, or that a story will even result. Therefore, a successful media interview training program must also address what constitutes news from the journalist’s perspective. Equipped with such knowledge, spokespersons can focus their comments on what journalists want, suggest ideas for stories, refer reporters to other resources, and, in short, become valuable resources that reporters turn to over and over again.

3. Media training produces better media coverage. Organizations want media coverage that, to the extent possible and practical, reflects their key messages; in other words, the main points the organization wants readers / viewers / listeners to gain from the coverage. Training is the best way to ensure that spokespeople master these main messages and skillfully weave them into their responses to a reporter’s questions.

Media training increases the likelihood that what you want to communicate will be covered. It’s impossible for people in any audience to understand the purpose of your communication if they don’t know what you mean. Media training forces an organization to clarify what it wants to say and how, thereby increasing the likelihood that a journalist will understand these messages and, ideally, report on the organization more accurately.

Media training educates spokespersons about typical media relations challenges. Myths abound about how journalists work and the vital role media relations professionals play in the editorial process. The training invites spokespersons to participate in this process, introducing them to the art and science of building productive relationships with reporters and the vital role they play. Perhaps most importantly, key players within the organization begin to incorporate media considerations into their thinking as a by-product of a comprehensive training program, which benefits the entire organization as it strives to navigate through a world rich in media.

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