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Why Media Training Works in Nonprofit Public Relations
I was an uninvited guest to my first media training session.
In my prior life as a journalist, I was one of the reasons why people got media training, which is designed to help newsmakers do a better job of being interviewed by reporters. Journalists, of course, are aware that some of the people they talk to get media training and have mixed feelings about it. In my current nonprofit public relations role, I see the value of it, when done right. If the training leads to a smoother interview with great quotes or sound bites, that’s great. If it leads to a stilted conversation full of canned talking points, not so great.
Anyway, back then I was covering criminal justice, which required me to interview the district attorney sometimes. This district attorney was a cranky fellow who believed that my newspaper was out to get him and that reporters had marching orders from ownership (a laughable thought for anyone with experience trying to get reporters to follow orders). He rarely agreed to interviews with me or my paper, and his communications person liked to invite everyone in the New York City press corps to news conferences except for us. That pettiness and his compulsive combativeness raised the stakes for both of us when interviews did happen.
On this occasion, the interview went well. He talked about the things that were important to him that day, and I got him to expand on that and some other issues I was interested in. I hung up and then right away picked up the phone to make another call, but instead of a dial tone (this was olden days), I heard him and his comms guy deconstructing the interview. I muted myself and listened to them evaluate my interviewing skills and his own responses. I was amused to hear the comms person praise him for answering questions concisely and not saying anything inflammatory that would have given me a tangent to pursue.
The interaction stuck with me in my current role, where I sometimes help prepare nonprofit leaders to anticipate reporters’ questions and coach them on how to respond effectively. The alternative — relying on the inherent goodness of the message or the messenger and then winging it — is a poor nonprofit public relations strategy. It’s better to rely on the bygone motto of the nonprofit formerly known as the Boy Scouts: Be prepared.
People facing a reporter’s microphone should be prepared on not just what to say, but how to say it. They should know how to dress and how to act. A good reporter is as much an observer as a listener, and will pay attention to a lot of things about you in addition to the words you say. They’ll be observing:
- Tone of voice
- Facial expressions
- Reliance on notes
- Fidgeting, sweating or stammering
Reporters will then feel free to use those observations in a story if necessary. The words count, but so does the packaging they come in.
It’s important because most people are not naturals at answering questions with the goal of telling their own story. Media training as practiced in nonprofit public relations aims to help potential news subjects handle unexpected or difficult questions, talk about crises, handle themselves at an event and speak humanly and authoritatively. It teaches interview subjects what not to say and how best to respond to the specific reporter on the other end of a call or sitting across from them.
Media training is an investment of time and effort. It’s a skill to learn, but a vital one for anyone sitting for a news interview. Doing that without media training is like flying a plane without a pilot’s license — you could go down in flames, and the video will be spectacular.