How to Handle
the Media
An 'Executive Survival Kit'
for doing media interviews,
reducing misquoting and misreporting,
and getting your point across in the media.
Jim Macnamara
Contents
About the author
Introduction - How to make or break your company or organisation and your career in 30 seconds
1. Understanding the media
• The role of the media
- The ‘devil’s advocate’ approach
• Why negative makes news
• What is news?
• Media bias
• Media effects & influence
• Commercial v public media
• The relationship between advertising and editorial
• Managing the interview
• Differences between press, radio & TV
• Interviewer styles
- ‘Baseliners’ and ‘net rushers’
- The ‘midwife’ approach
- ‘Ambush’ interviews
2. Basic ingredients of media interviews and relationships
• Access
- Fast-tracking media calls
- Calling the media back
- Appointing a media spokesperson
- Training media spokespersons
• Brevity
• Keep it simple
• Don't use the interviewer's name
• Honesty, sincerity and compassion
- What to say when you don’t know
3. Seven tools for successful media interviews
• Objectives
• Frame of reference
• 'Must says' and 'like to says'
• 'Bridging'
- The 10/30 Principle
• Standalone statements
• Reiteration
• Avoid 'red herrings'
4. Ground rules for dealing with the media
• Off the record
• Non-attributable
• Background
• Exclusives
• Embargoes
• Leaks
• Asking for questions in advance
• Reading back copy
• Copyright
• Defamation
• Misreporting - what to do about it
• Over-exposure
5. Building relationships with journalists and editors
• Booze and blurb don’t work
• Mutual respect
• Backgrounding and briefing
• Invitations
• Tours and visits
• Entertainment
• Saying thank you
6. Media research: knowing more about the media
• Media databases
• Media monitoring
• Media Content Analysis
• The New Media
Checklist for media interviews
Media terms & definitions
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About the author
Jim Macnamara has more than 25 years experience in the media and communication. He began his career as a journalist and has written for leading newspapers including the Sydney Morning Herald, leading magazines such as Walkabout, radio and television.
He holds a Diploma in Journalism, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in media studies and literary studies and a Masters of Arts degree (MA) by research in media & public relations.
Jim has the valuable experience of having been both antagonist and protagonist in the media. After almost eight years as a journalist, he became a public relations adviser and spokesperson for a number of national and international companies and organisations.
He has appeared as a spokesperson on programs including 60 Minutes, The National Today Show, the ABC's Four Corners and 7.30 Report, Good Morning Australia, as well as television news and he has been at both ends of the microphone for literally hundreds of press and radio interviews.
No stranger to controversial issues, Jim has personal experience in handling the media on such sensitive subjects as industrial disputes; farm chemicals use; food contaminations; animal welfare (as spokesperson for the National Farmers Federation in Australia); electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone towers; and computer software piracy (as Chairman of the Business Software Association in Australia for six years).
He has also been a media spokesperson for high profile international companies including Microsoft and UK-based mobile communications giant, Vodafone.
The author founded a leading public relations consultancy, MACRO Communication, and headed the firm for 13 years, advising companies including Microsoft, Compaq, Coca-Cola, Singapore Airlines and Vodafone, before leaving to focus on research and writing.
He is the author of a number of other books including Public Relations Handbook for Clubs & Associations, Public Relations Handbook for Managers & Executives, The Asia Pacific Public Relations Handbook, The Modern Presenter's Handbook and is co-author of The New Zealand Handbook of Public Relations.
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Introduction
How to make or break your company or organisation
and your career in 30 seconds
Senior executives, public officials, politicians and leaders of all types of groups cannot avoid facing the media at one time or another in today's 'information age' with its pervasive communications media. Whether you operate at local community level or in national affairs, at some time a microphone or tape recorder will be thrust in front of you and you will be required to make a statement that will be read, heard or seen by thousands or even millions of people.
When you face the media, nothing you learned in your career training, on the job, or even in a fancy MBA program prepares you. Media interviews involve techniques of questioning and editing of responses that are not taught in university or management courses.
Journalists are trained in how to ask probing and often difficult questions. They also are familiar with the equipment and technology of the media, including sophisticated editing facilities that can extract segments of what you say, or join statements together which can alter the context and even the entire meaning of your comments.
Spokespersons for organisations and companies often naively face media interviews ill-equipped for the dynamic communication opportunity that media interviews provide. In most interviews, the ‘other guy’ is holding all the cards.
It need not be so. Some basic tips and training can equip you to get your points across in an interview and minimise misreporting and misquoting. If you talk to the media now, or are likely to do so in the future, this handbook provides invaluable advice.
When you talk to the media, your company's or organisation's reputation, sales of your product or service, the success or failure of a project in which you are involved - or even your career - could depend on how you perform and how the interview turns out. In many interviews, only a short 'grab' of around 30 seconds or less of what you say will be used. You can make or break your company or organisation and your career in those 30 seconds.
A leading radio or TV program can expose your company or organisation and your products or services to an audience of millions. Similarly, major circulation newspapers and magazines reach large segments of your market or 'constituency'.
Interviews are also observed by government officials, regulatory bodies, consumer organisations, environmentalists, the organisation's own staff and your competitors.
The aim of this sobering warning is not to scare would-be interviewees away from the media, but to emphasise the importance of media interviews. They provide the opportunity to talk to a mass audience far beyond any which can be gathered at a public relations function, a marketing roadshow or in a conference or seminar.
It is ironic that many companies and organisations spend millions of dollars on advertising and promotion to build a carefully honed and packaged image of their company or products. But their key spokespersons are often not equipped to support or defend that image in news or current affairs coverage. Advertising agencies as well as public relations firms would be well advised to ensure that their clients are competent to talk to news, current affairs and talk show programs.
Many executives and public figures believe that they do not need training in media communication. Even leading MBA programs still do not include media skills in their courses designed to prepare graduates for senior management. But like public speaking, flying an aircraft, or ballroom dancing, giving successful interviews does not come naturally. Even the most polished speaker who is well-educated, intelligent and fully conversant with his or her topic, can be made to look foolish, evasive or guilty by a gruelling interviewer and careless or mischievous media editing.
Media training programs of varying standards and styles are available to coach spokespersons who face the media. Many such programs are run by retired TV or radio personalities. However, while undoubtedly expert in the media, their focus is usually precisely that - the media. Because of their background, they teach spokespersons what to do and not do to meet the media’s requirements.
But a successful interview from a spokesperson’s perspective is not simply about achieving the media’s objectives. Many media would consider an interview a success if they had you on the floor screaming for mercy. A successful interview is also about achieving your objectives. You don’t just want the journalist to go away happy with a story; you want to get your message across and present your point of view.
Some other media training programs spend a lot of time on how you should look and speak to the media, what to wear, and so on. These are cosmetic issues and, while of some importance for television, are far less significant than the content of media interviews.
This handbook focuses on the content of media interviews and the tactics and strategy involved in creating that content, whether for press, radio or TV news, current affairs or chat shows. It tells you how to get your point across; how to say what you want to say when a journalist pursues other issues; how to have your comments reported accurately and avoid misreporting; what to say when you don’t know the answer to a question; how to handle difficult situations such as ‘ambush interviews’ and so on.
In other words, this handbook is not only about helping you meet the media’s requirements and achieving their objectives; it’s about helping you achieve your objectives.
The theme of this handbook is the 'win win' interview where the journalist gets some good quotes to make or support a story and you get your message across.
Seen in this light, media interviews are opportunities. A top rating radio or TV show can offer a company or organisation an audience of several million people for several minutes without charge. A comparable opportunity purchased as advertising would cost $100,000 or more in major capital cities. Even in smaller regional cities or towns, a chance to be interviewed for a local newspaper or to appear on radio or TV can be worth several thousand dollars in free publicity.
But you need to know what you are doing in media interviews. It is a high stakes game when you are facing a tough and even potentially hostile interviewer and an audience of thousands or millions. You can literally make or break your company and career in 30 seconds.
For instance, a leading slate supplier to the retail market saw itself as a reputable, well-managed company selling a quality product which was natural and relatively safe from the media spotlight. But when the ABC’s Four Corners program turned up to talk to a company spokesperson after interviewing a dissatisfied customer, the reputation of the entire company and its products were on the line.
Despite having a strong case and being largely blameless for the customer’s problems, the slate company came off badly in the interview, allowing the interviewer to dictate the agenda and focus on negative issues. More complaints poured in and sales fell sharply. The company had to engage a public relations firm to help it rebuild its image and train its media spokespersons.
Another case in point involved an international chemical company. Chemicals are a natural and essential part of our world. Many save lives and promote human and environmental health. But when a well-known chemical company, responsible for many life-saving drugs, wanted to build a new plant on the outskirts of a major city, local ‘greenie’ and consumer groups lobbied the media to oppose the development. The company’s spokespersons at first refused to talk to the media and then, when they did, they appeared in the media as aloof, arrogant and unconvincing. As a result, the company won the scientific battle with the Department of Environment and Planning, but lost the publicity battle. The project was stopped and the company's image was tarnished by a barrage of media criticism.
Because of the freedom and tenacity of the mass media, particularly in Western democratic countries such as Australia, the UK and the US, executives of corporations and major organisations are no longer able to hide from journalists behind "no comment". General and specialist media probe all areas of business, trade, industry and the professions. Silence only breeds suspicion.
If you don't tell your side of the story, the media will run the story anyway. They will talk to your competitors instead. And, generally, you and your organisation will come off worse for refusing to comment.
When the media do interview business and organisation spokespersons, they frequently lament the lack of 'good talent' - a media term for spokespersons who can present their information concisely and clearly in a way that will interest the audience. Too often spokespersons ramble with long-winded explanations and technical mumbo-jumbo that go over the head of the average person. To be successful in media interviews, you need to understand how to package your information for the medium and the audience.
By understanding the media and becoming familiar with and skilled in the techniques of interviews, spokespersons can welcome media interviews and use them as positive opportunities for communication.
In today’s competitive age, companies, organisations and even government departments and services such as the police need to be able to coherently and effectively communicate with their ‘stakeholders’ and the general public.
Professor C. Northcote Parkinson, famous for his ‘Parkinson’s Law’, told a Sydney media conference during a visit to Australia:
“In the world today, you have no chance if you keep silent. There was a time when strong silent men could not fail to announce their views. Today, if you don't speak up, other people will - and not to your advantage. One has to say one's piece and say it more effectively than one's opponent.” (Macnamara, 1984, p. 10)
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1.
Understanding the media
________________________________________________________________
Many years of training spokespersons to face the media and analysing interviews have revealed three principal reasons why interviews fail in terms of communicating what an interviewee wants to say:
1. Attitude;
2. An imbalance of knowledge; and
3. Lack of preparation.
This handbook will address all three areas and give you advice as well as a range of practical tools and techniques to successfully conduct media interviews.
To work with the media, you firstly need to have some knowledge of how they operate and how they approach their job. From the outset, your understanding of media roles, functions, needs and operating procedures shapes your attitude towards journalists and editors. Your attitude, in turn, will significantly affect interviews that you give and your ongoing relationships with the media.