Media Training
If you or the leader of your organization is going to speak to the media, either in a one-on-one interview or at a news conference, it is usually beneficial to do some media training. Many church leaders resist media training. They are possibly quite skilled at talking to people, quite practiced in expressing their views in public, and possibly concerned that training will make them seem self-conscious or inauthentic. But a media interview is not a conversation, and the goal is not to form a personal relationship with the reporter. Additionally, while sources have more power than they realize when giving an interview—you can’t be accurately quoted on what you do not say—the reporter is the one asking the questions. So train and interview with care. 1. Distill Your Ideas. To begin preparing for an interview, distill your ideas in short statements easily understood by someone not familiar with the technicalities of the issues in which you specialize. If you are going to speak to the broadcast media, practice sound bites. It isn’t hard to practice for a television appearance using only a flip camera or an iPad. Have someone ask you questions and answer them. Then look at your performance. 2. Check Your Presentation. Did you look physically comfortable, or are you sunk so deep into your chair that you are practically folded in half? Did you sit relatively still, or did you bob and weave? Did you maintain eye contact with the interviewer? (Don’t look straight into the camera.) Is your resting face (the one you wear when you aren’t speaking) alert and friendly, or do you narrow your eyes and furrow your brow? Do you telegraph the end of your answers by looking away, pursing your lips, or tilting your head to one side? 3. Review Your Performance. After you get a sense of how you look, focus on what you said. Did you get your point across, or were you so eager to accommodate the reporter that you allowed that person to lead you off into other topics? Did you repeat negative language in a question? If the reporter asks you if the mainline churches are in an ever-accelerating death spiral and you say, “The mainline churches are certainly not in ‘an ever-accelerating death spiral . . . , ’ ” then what will remain in the public’s mind is “ever-accelerating death spiral.” Did you use jargon that will confuse listeners or make them turn you off? It can be helpful to include a friend who is not a church person in your practice session. She or he can let you know easily if you’re making sense to a broad audience. 4. Stay on Message. Some media consultants recommend turning every question you are asked back to your messages. We agree in concept, and this can frequently be done gracefully through techniques sometimes called bridging and pivoting. These techniques amount to what an English teacher in your distant past called a transition sentence. You have probably seen these maneuvers in action. A reporter asks a pointed or accusatory question and the interview subject says: “That’s one way of looking at it, but our organization has always . . . , ” or, “I prefer to think of this as...,” or, “There are a wide variety of opinions on this issue, but we can all agree that. . . . ” To take an example that will resonate within most mainline denominations: “I believe the focus on this argument among bishops in the Anglican Communion holds us back. What we really need to be talking about are the relationships that bind us together, regardless of our position on [insert issue here]. Our community is deeply involved in cultivating those relationships.” 5. Tell It Straight. While we teach our clients to bridge and pivot, and admire those who do it well, it isn’t helpful in the long run to be unresponsive to reporter’s questions. Rather, we recommend anticipating those questions, and formulating factual answers. Give those facts. Don’t go beyond the facts. If you are doing a live broadcast interview, and the reporter asks a question that includes erroneous assertions, begin your answer by saying something like: “Leaving aside for the moment some of the assertions on which your question is based . . . ” and then give your factual answers. If you are doing a print interview or a taped interview, don’t answer the question, but tell the reporter, respectfully, that you believe they have some misinformation, and offer your corrections. 6. Take Your Time. Remember that unless you are doing a live interview, you can always pause to collect your thoughts before answering a question. Remember too that if youaren’t ready to talk to a reporter, you can always ask them their deadline and promise to call them back. 7. Be Prepared to Give Background. Often, having prepared for an interview, anticipated difficult questions, and practiced how to answer them, you will find yourself speaking to a reporter who has no particular knowledge about your organization or about the church. It is particularly common to get a local television reporter who is a generalist, a reporter covering a Sunday morning story who simply drew the short straw for the weekend shift, or a reporter who has no familiarity at all with the form of Christian worship or the basic tenets of the faith. Additionally, a reporter without much religion background may have assumptions based on the religion that is dominant in your area of the country. If that dominant church is Catholic or evangelical, you may have to spend some time talking to the reporter about when your church started ordaining women and the fact that members actually vote on important church decisions. If you prepared for a harder, issue-oriented interview, you can sometimes be caught off guard when you have to back up and give a quick version of Mainline Church 101. Shift gears. Go into teaching mode. You aren’t going to turn the reporter into an expert in the course of your interview, but if you imagine yourself talking to an interested seatmate on a plane flight, or some other polite but un informed interlocutor, you will usually come out okay. In all instances make sure reporters know that they can get back in touch with you to check facts.
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