Most people get terrified if the media want to interview them for a news, current affairs or magazine program. These can be on television or radio, or be in print or on the internet. However, it's the television or radio interview that get's the blood curdling in most executives that I've met in media training workshops.
There's a reason for this ' the television interview is the hardest to handle. Any sweat on your brow, even it's caused by a harsh light shining on you, can be misinterpreted by the audience as though you're hiding something. They don't see the light; all they see is the sweat. If you lick your lips nervously, don't answer questions confidently, have a tremor in your limbs or look away from the reporter constantly, the viewers will promptly lose any trust in you and your argument. The solution, which comes out of proper media training, is preparation.
Put the journalist off when he/she first approaches you, until you have time to properly prepare. Use a white lie if you have to but put off the journalist till you've had a chance to properly prepare. If you start answering questions on the phone without this preparation you might find that when the journalist arrives to record the real interview, your responses, after preparation, might be different and then you have a whole new ball game called contradiction ' the new news story.
So, what does this vital preparation involve? For a start, check what you should say or shouldn't say. This is the filtering that's so important if you're going to protect your career. You should be using some pithy catch-phrases or analogies and these take time to prepare. The major part of preparation is to determine your best few messages and get them straight in your mind. Don't overload with a lot of messages. You'll be more successful if you repeat your main three messages several times rather than get nine different messages once into the interview.
You see, in a pre-recorded interview which will be most television ones you might do, the reporter will dip into one answer for news, or several for a current affairs program, so if you repeat your main messages the chances for your grab to be used actually increase. Don't forget how you look and get some little example stories ready to trot out as well as any models or imagery that will back up your story and a search in Google to help with research. Take the wider view rather than a narrow view so you're prepared if the journalist throws an industry wide comment at you. Or indeed, that might be a region-wide, state-wide, national or international comment gleaned from his/her Google research.
A final tip for media interview preparation ' have someone in your organisation put you through a mock interview or two before the real one is recorded. We do this for clients and it works a treat in getting them up to speed before the big event.
Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/
If you want more help in dealing with the media, visit Graham Kelly's main website or the one that has information on his latest media training book
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