Interviews – AE2S Communications

I can totally understand the feeling. You get a call from a news reporter who wants comments from you about an incident, issue or event.

This leads to an immediate physical reaction. You feel your whole body tense up. Dry mouth attacks. A reporter is precisely the last person you wanted to hear from today.

Or, you might feel like, “Great! I could use the free PR!”

It’s normal to have a range of reactions to a pitch from a reporter for an interview, from total repulsion to a total embrace of the idea. Even as a former television anchor and reporter, I’ve certainly felt nervous any time I’ve been interviewed for a story.

I used to be the reporter calling for an interview and heard many different reactions. Most of the time, those conversations went very well and the interviews were schedule. I also had people hang up on me. I don’t recommend that. Be patient when a reporter calls and listen to what they have to say. Understand that you’ll probably feel nervous when you take that call.

Here are some thoughts I hope will help ease that tension.

Understanding Reporters

It helps to understand some things about reporters, in a general sense, whether they work in the traditional media or digital media.

Most reporters who work for newspapers, television, radio or other traditional media are professionals with degrees in journalism.
They may or may not know you and what you do.
They are not necessarily content experts, but never assume they do not know the topic.
They rely on facts and commentary in order to do their jobs.
Sometimes, they have to take “crash courses” on the topics they’re covering.
They are busy! Many reporters work in both traditional and online world as MMJs, or multimedia journalists, who not only report the news, but are also tasked with the electronic gathering of the video and/or sound that accompanies a story on TV, radio, or the internet.
The work of a reporter in traditional media is usually complicated by pressures from management and editors who are charged with putting the news organization’s best face forward on a minute-by-minute basis.
If you’re contacted by someone who writes or blogs online for a living, this person faces other kinds of constraints.
Either way, these conditions lead to tight deadlines.

Look Beyond a Reporter’s Limitations

Despite these things, you need to look beyond the reporter’s limitations.

Why? Frustration or resentment on your part could lead to a communication breakdown and perhaps a negative story. By remaining open and cooperative, you may be able to educate the reporter in a non-threatening way.

Actually, providing an efficient education is one thing that’s tops on most reporters’ want lists of the people they interview. They need information and commentary relevant to their story, and they need you to provide those things, on the record.

Reporters want you to:

Be open and cooperative
Be available and prepared as soon as possible
Provide relevant and accurate information
Provide opinions based on fact; however, if you work for someone else, make sure these points are agreeable to the client or company
Show a little personality, if appropriate
Be patient with their questions

Now that you know more about reporters, it’s time to get ready to talk with them.

In my next entry, I’ll provide helpful steps you can take to prepare for the media interview.

It’s been said that the number one fear of most people isn’t of heights, or death, or bugs, or clowns.

The number one fear of Americans is public speaking.

So, if you’re surprised one day with a request to speak before a crowd, or give a media interview (which is very similar), it might not be out of the ordinary to start sweating bullets.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

This is the first of a series of blogs I’ll be writing about Interacting with the Media. As a former TV news anchor and reporter, I used to be on the other side asking the questions. I know exactly what the traditional media typically looks for in a successful interview. In recent years, I’ve written online articles, blogs, produced video for online consumption, and managed social media channels, so I’m also familiar with what reporters and bloggers in the “digital” world want.

Many of our clients work on public projects. And you, or someone you work with, could be tasked with communicating in some way with the public and the media.

It would be unusual if you weren’t at least a little nervous about that, no matter how much experience you may or may not have in speaking and giving media interviews.

Fear Starts Young

Some motivational psychologists think that the fear of public speaking could be traced back to our years as kids. Were you ever discouraged from performing in front of others as a youngster? Plus, if you had a bad experience when you had to present to an audience as a kid, that could just make fear and self-doubt worse.

But I want you to keep a couple of things in mind as comfort, including what I call, “The Most Important Thing to Remember” about public speaking. I’ll get to that in minute.

Fear is Normal

The first thing you should remember is that fear in these situations is normal and you shouldn’t worry about resisting the fear. Instead, embrace it! Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

Fear is Energy

You can rally your fear to the occasion by riding that energy in healthy ways, such as taking time to organize your thoughts, and put words to them.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

If the situation allows, and you practice what you’re going to say over and over again until it comes as second nature to you, you’ll learn to relax a bit. When you reach that state, you’ll appear even more spontaneous and passionate about what you’re saying, because you won’t feel like a fraud. You’ll know that you know your stuff.

This leads to what I call, “The Most Important thing to Remember,” which is:

Know Your Content, and the Rest Will Follow

Once you know the content backwards and forwards, you’ll enter the media interview with confidence, which is the most important element, knowing that what you speak is the truth. To me, this is even more important than the way you “perform”, in technical terms, during a media interview. I’ll provide some tips on technique later in this series, and there are things that can be learned, but the thing to do first thing is to know your content backwards and forwards. I don’t mean memorizing words. I mean being sure you know and understand the facts you need to talk about.

It helps if this is a topic that you have a passion for…something you feel strongly about…because then, the reporter and the audience will perceive your enthusiasm. I’m not talking about jumping up and down and being a cheerleader. You can be subtle about it. People will notice.

Here’s another good thing to remember:

You have more power and control than you think.

Even in a situation that seems uncontrollable, you have control of your actions and words. Information is power, and you have the ability to use that power in a positive way.

While you can’t control events entirely, you can control your responses to them.

You can help shape media coverage and, thereby, help shape public perceptions of the project you are involved with, or the issue.

So don’t be self-conscious. Be self-confident. Know Your Content, and the Rest Will Follow.

My posts in this series will provide helpful insight into preparing for and giving a great media interview. I understand things about that world that can really help you. In my next entry, I’ll tell you what reporters need from various types of interviews.

Category: Interviews

What Reporters Need

The Most Important Thing to Giving a Successful Media Interview