About

So you’re about to give a media interview. Just relax and be yourself. Be your most entertaining, most truthful, smartest self. And don’t say anything rash.

Simple advice, but it’s easier said than done.

Few people relish giving media interviews. Preparation can be stressful. Insufficient preparation - and dealing with the consequences - can be devastating for you and your organisation. It’s easy to be wiser after the event, as you recall and reflect on what you wish you hadn’t said, think of a really good answer to the tough questions or imagine yourself delivering a truly memorable line. But it would be too late by then. And can you afford to make those mistakes?

Journalists have their own rules. It’s imperative that you know just what they are. And you need to discover what each journalist wants and learn how to work with them for a desirable outcome.

If you are seeking to be more media savvy and prepare yourself for media interviews, Media Training for Senior Executives is the right course for you. You will emerge from Media Training for Senior Executives with a range of skills that will give you the confidence to get the right message across and be a terrific interview subject. To enhance your learning experience, the course has been designed to actively engage you in practical and simulated exercises to increase your ability to apply the skills you’ve learned immediately. Hopefully you may even be able to relax a little, and be yourself when the time comes for you to face the media!

Outline

Day One

Quiz and Introduction
• Who’s who in the media zoo
• Understanding newsroom language

What Makes News
• Newsworthiness
- Exploring some theories
- What makes a story run
- Making your story media friendly
- How to engage the media - proven methods and techniques
Practical exercise: Spot the news
Reviewing newspapers and publications

What’s in a Message?
• Making messaging matter
• Utilising messaging tools to great effect

Getting your Point Across
• Talking about your organisation, role and your issue
• Talking to different audiences
• Don’t just write it, say it aloud
Practical exercise: From blah to aha!
Spotting news nuggets in media releases

Preparing for an Interview
• The interview as contract: Your rights and responsibilities, and theirs
• Developing your PATCH
• Owning the interview by finding the 3 C’s
- Comfort, credibility and control
• What NOT to do
Practical exercise: Effective messaging
Staying on message

Becoming a Source
• Know thy journalist
• “It’s the relationship, dummy”
• Active calling
• Four aspects of the valued relationship
- Context, confirmation and comment
- Feedback
- Gossip
- Whistle-blowing

Setting Boundaries
• Are you ever ‘Off the record?’
• Considering tempting pitfalls like “Not for publication” and “Not for attribution”
• Journalists’ relationship with sources - what they’re looking for
• What “No comment” really means, and how it will be reported
Practical exercise: Case study interviews

Interview scenarios
When - and How to Turn Them Down
• Should you refuse an opportunity?
• What happens next - to you and to them?

Setting the Scene
• Looking the part
• What not to wear
• Where to be interviewed

Tips and Troubleshooting Tools of the Trade
• Microphones
• Video cameras
• Shorthand pads
• Tape-recorders
• Still cameras
• The “Spray & Wipe” test

Day Two

Getting Quoted: How to Stack the Odds in Your Favour
• Giving answers that sparkle
• Creating a word picture - examples which always work
• Bites and grabs - what they are and how to use them
Practical exercise: Quotable answers

Issues Management 101: Handling Media Attention During...
• Redundancies
• Financial troubles
• Inappropriate staff behaviour
• Customer complaints
• The Fair Go syndrome
• Scoring “own goals”
• Knowing the opposition

How to Answer the Question AND Deliver Your Message in a Hostile Interview
• Basic bridge-building tools
Practical exercise: Building bridges in tough interviews

Media Ethics
• Rules reporters live by
• “The whole truth and nothing but” from different sides of the coin
• What to say when you do have something to hide
• The consequences of lying
Case study: Steve Wozniak vs. the New Zealand Herald

Legal Matters: An Overview of Your Options
• Defamation
• Fair comment
• Press Council
• Advertising Standards Authority
• Copyright

The Radio Interview
• How to speak for radio
• “It ain’t what you say, it’s the way and how you say it”
• Managing pre-recorded and live interviews
Practical exercise: Simulated radio interviews

Putting Yourself in the Picture
• Improving your visual appeal
• Body language, glasses, chins, eyes, hands, accessories

TV Interviews
• How to prepare
• How to sit
• How to look
• “Play it again, Sam” - the extended shelf life of TV interviews
Practical exercise: Simulated TV interviews

Feeling the Fear and Doing it Anyway
• Keeping adrenalin in its proper place
• Maintaining your composure in a high pressure environment
• Tips to make it easier on yourself
Practical exercise: The tough interview

The Media Storm
• 12: The critical number of hours
• Making the most of your allies
• Essential toolkits - practical considerations
• Common traps and pitfalls

Professional Resources
• Keeping your skills up-to-date

Facilitators

Dr. Allan Botica, Senior Counsel, Botica Butler Raudon Partners

Dr. Allan Botica (D. Phil., Oxon)
Allan is Senior Counsel at Botica Butler Raudon Partners, a company he founded in 1987.  One of New Zealand’s best-known media trainers, his entertaining and rigorous approach makes him in demand at national and international conferences.

A specialist in rapidly growing and fast changing sectors of the economy, Allan counsels a wide range of well-known clients on complex communications issues, ranging in focus from capital markets, litigation and finance to information technology, biotechnology and economic development.

Botica Butler Raudon’s premise is straightforward: they want to understand your business and help you find new ways to tell your stories simply and superbly.

Sally Raudon, Director & Consultant, Botica Butler Raudon Partners

Sally Raudon
Sally is a director and consultant at Botica Butler Raudon Partners, an Auckland-based public relations firm that boasts a wide client portfolio, undertaking challenging and highly specialised work spanning high technology, biotech, capital raising, litigation support and entrepreneurial start-ups. As well as local organisations, she works with clients and colleagues in the US and across Asia Pacific.
Sally is a regular media trainer for corporates and individuals - and is the on-call media strategist for some of New Zealand’s highest profile newsmakers.

Sally regularly presents on new media trends and how to adapt public relations to meet them, and also coaches people on thriving in a media crisis.

In-house Training