A Checklist Before a Media Interview

Most people get terrified if the media want to interview them for a news, current affairs or magazine program. These can be on television or radio, or be in print or on the internet. However, it's the television or radio interview that get's the blood curdling in most executives that I've met in media training workshops.

That's why the TV interview is the worst one to conquer. There could be a harsh light on you, making you sweat but the audience will see only the beads of sweat and you can look like you're trying to conceal something from them. They don't see the light; all they see is the sweat. If you lick your lips nervously, don't answer questions confidently, have a tremor in your limbs or look away from the reporter constantly, the viewers will promptly lose any trust in you and your argument. Media training would convince you that you have to prepare before any media jousting.

Put the journalist off when he/she first approaches you, until you have time to properly prepare. Use a white lie if you have to but put off the journalist till you've had a chance to properly prepare. If you start answering questions on the phone without this preparation you might find that when the journalist arrives to record the real interview, your responses, after preparation, might be different and then you have a whole new ball game called contradiction ' the new news story.

So, what does this vital preparation involve? For a start, check what you should say or shouldn't say. This is the filtering that's so important if you're going to protect your career. You should be using some pithy catch-phrases or analogies and these take time to prepare. The main part of preparation though is to work out the two to three main messages that you want to get across in the media interview and then hone them so you have them razor sharp in your mind. Do not try to get too many messages to inject into the interview. You'll be more successful if you repeat your main three messages several times rather than get nine different messages once into the interview.

You see, in a pre-recorded interview which will be most television ones you might do, the reporter will dip into one answer for news, or several for a current affairs program, so if you repeat your main messages the chances for your grab to be used actually increase. Don't forget how you look and get some little example stories ready to trot out as well as any models or imagery that will back up your story and a search in Google to help with research. Take the wider view rather than a narrow view so you're prepared if the journalist throws an industry wide comment at you. Or indeed, that might be a region-wide, state-wide, national or international comment gleaned from his/her Google research.

A good way to finish your preparation is to do a pretend interview with another person in your company. We do this for clients and it works a treat in getting them up to speed before the big event.