Managing Media Interviews
Seven Word Summary: Stay calm and stick to the message.
Picture this: you are having a discussion with a friend. It turns out, you both share a similar point of view on whatever the topic is.
You smile, nod along and – unsurprisingly – the conversation fizzles out fairly quickly.
Now picture a different scenario: you embark upon the same discussion, but discover that you disagree with your friend; not vehemently, but enough that you ask some questions, they ask some of you, and through this process you can reach some sort of understanding of what the other person’s point of view is.
Media interviews are a bit like this.
The journalist may well take what we could refer to as a devil’s advocate approach, where it feels like they are disagreeing with everything you are saying.
Don’t take this personally. The journalist may ultimately share your view on whatever the topic is. They may not have a view. They may not even care what your view is.
What they want is a story, and to get to it they require your views, your perspective, the information you possess.
Don’t take any offense to their questioning, even if it feels like you are under attack because it appears on the surface they disagree with everything you are saying.
Disagreeing is simply their way of teasing out your view and eliciting further information from you.
For business leaders, this can be very confronting.
Typically accustomed to being surrounded by “yes” people, it can be quite challenging to suddenly find yourself in a place where someone who you don’t know well is questioning everything you say.
But stay calm, stick to the message that you want to get across, and above all don’t take any of it personally. For the journalist interviewing you, this approach is simply “business as usual” and doesn’t in any way reflect a judgement on your views.
For more tips on effectively managing your next media interview, speak to Seven Patterns.
About the Author
David Ikin is a highly experienced corporate communications professional with significant experience across the mining, technology, defence and financial services sectors.
Over the course of a career spanning more than 30 years, David’s work has been split between consulting and in-house roles. His most recent project involved leading the communication function for a major technology program within one of the largest global mining companies.
David’s passion is for helping companies communicate more effectively with their stakeholders: investors, customers, employees, the media and the broader community.
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