Posts Tagged ‘news’
Monday, April 15th, 2013
I believe as a reporter it was my responsibility to ask tough questions or at least ones that viewers at home were mumbling to themselves while watching the news. Some people thought these questions reflected my personal views. The fact that my last reporting job was at a Fox station compounded some people’s perceptions.
In today’s environment of partisan journalism, some questions actually reflect the journalist’s personal views. (I hesitate to use the word journalist in the previous sentence because a journalist in reality should be objective.) However I want to believe most partisan journalism is confined to the cable news networks with some exceptions outside that arena. I want to believe most journalists are just asking tough questions because that is their legitimate job.
Don’t take it personally when reporters ask tough questions. Few reporters want anyone to mistake them as a member of a public relations team. Some reporters go overboard and feel obligated to ask tough questions, to dig deeper into a story, even if they’re covering a bake sale.
First, try to learn what reporter will be interviewing you, limiting the chances someone will catch you off guard. Second, understand most journalists are covering news, not conducting an interview for the yearbook. Expect tough questioning and practice for it. Don’t let them see you sweat. Don’t say something sarcastic about the questions. Some journalists are looking for such a reaction. Don’t give it to them. It’s not personal. It’s business, the business of journalism.
Tags: cable news networks, journalism, journalists, media, media training, news, news network, PR, Public Relations, reporters
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Monday, January 21st, 2013
The psychologist we sent to appear on a morning TV news show did not expect the anchor by her side to start the interview by asking about her plans for Christmas dinner. We scheduled her to speak about relationships, but the anchors had been talking about holiday dinners beforehand. We prepare people for all types of questions, but anticipating one specifically about dinner is a reach.
Many TV anchors have always liked a transition between stories, sometimes no matter how difficult or forced. Some anchors also appreciate starting or ending an interview with a question that reminds us of a party ice breaker. The question might focus on the weather, sports or some other lighthearted current event everyone seems to be chatting about. This type of unpredictable question can throw off a newbie to TV, especially someone practicing and zeroing in so carefully on delivering key messages. And when people hesitate to answer such a question or do so awkwardly, they appear stiff or to lack personality.
When anchors tossed to me for a live shot, they sometimes threw a twist by beginning with a question instead of the more traditional, “Let’s go live to Keith Yaskin with the story.” This type of surprise requires rapid thinking especially when someone is so focused and prepared to begin by saying something else.
Media training should include some off-the-wall, seemingly unrelated questions to ensure you don’t stall. While interviewing a manager during media training, we asked him a question about his favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys. He offered an analysis worthy of Phil Simms and his thorough answer led to laughter. But his ability to answer our audible and then return to the game plan helps ensure his future interviews will be no joke.
Tags: dallas cowboys, interview, interviews, media, media training, news, news show, PR, reporter, reporters, tv anchor, tv anchors, tv news
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
During media training, participants shared with us these eight negative statements about news media.
- Participant worries about journalists twisting or misinterpreting her words.
- Participant shares a negative experience with a reporter who never made time for her.
- Participant says one reporter acknowledged his management wants to “go after” an aspect of her organization.
- Participant asks what motives reporters have when interrupting people trying to answer questions.
- Participant has little media experience but considers the prospect terrifying.
- Participant considers media intimidating and that they often misrepresent people.
- Participant says some reporters consider you guilty until proven innocent.
- Participant says some reporters craft facts and omit others.
Tags: journalist, journalists, media, media experience, media training, news, news media, PR, reporter, reporters
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Monday, December 3rd, 2012
- Handling reporters who interrupt you before you finish an answer
- Adjusting facial gestures that send negative messages to reporters and viewers
- Managing questions that make someone animated and furious
- Taking more control of interviews
- Identifying whom on staff is your best spokesperson and sometimes the best person is unexpected
- Honing and getting back to key messages
- Needing to tell more anecdotes
- Raising very important talking points not previously considered to combat negative news stories
- Avoiding answers that validate a reporter’s negative question
- Strengthening an argument without unintentionally making a key constituent look bad
- Helping to show others that the group’s leaders are real people
- Working on not using too many “uhs” and “ums”
- Holding back from publicly criticizing critics, opponents or competitors
- Discussing with reporters public funding and sensitive financial numbers
- Realizing you have personal stories to tell that reporters should hear
Tags: constituent, interview, interviews, media, media training, news, news stories, PR, reporter, reporters, san diego, spokesperson, talking points
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Thursday, November 29th, 2012
Wow! First off, plenty of people liked our Ragan.com article questioning the use of terms such as “media advisory” and “immediate release” on news releases. But others … you would think I wrote a controversial article about taxes, spending and the fiscal cliff. People complain how politicians turn negative and can not respectfully disagree. After reading some of the comments posted about our article, I’m beginning to believe some of the politicians learned such behavior from the public. Several of my critics depicted my attempt at humor as snarky and mean-spirited. I don’t care if you disagree with me, but what drives someone to verbally throw me off the cliff? I don’t dare claim to know the answers about society, but I gather I raised questions about some long-held practices. And instead of some of these PR pros seeing this as an opportunity to question conventional wisdom and at least for a split second consider a change of course, they decided the better approach was to depict me as an empty-headed jerk who must have stolen his awards and graduated by mistake from one of the country’s best journalism schools. But those folks don’t know my story because they didn’t take a few seconds to read it. Hey, the good news is a couple of people I haven’t communicated with in a long time read the article and got back in touch. We exchanged some pleasant emails.
http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/45820.aspx#idc-cover
Tags: best journalism schools, immediate release, journalism, media, media advisory, news, news release, news releases, politicians, PR, PR pro, PR pros, ragan
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Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
I have often heard some people argue there’s a media conspiracy to get certain politicians elected or to push certain agendas. Yes, some news organizations have gained reputations for being either liberal or conservative. But I scoff at the idea that multiple news organizations and an invisible underground association of journalists conspire secretly together to get what they want. Why? Because most media are just not that organized. Here are some examples:
Evening producers sometimes assigned me stories they didn’t know the morning show already aired. If the media can’t communicate within the same room, how can they conspire nationally?
When management devises a new plan for delivering the news, they often quietly scrap that strategy weeks later. They couldn’t commit to a lengthy conspiracy.
Many journalists aren’t devoted to a particular political party. They are loyal to anyone offering them free food.
How bad was the communication in some newsrooms? I often emailed people two desks over to ensure I had a record of my words.
For every liberal writer behind the scenes in journalism, there is a well-paid anchor or manager not interested in paying one extra dime in taxes.
Many in media consider themselves an expert in all topics, so a conspiracy would almost certainly implode from within.
Managing a conspiracy would take too much time away from fantasy football and discussing shoes.
Many members would drop out of the conspiracy after learning the schedule didn’t allow a full hour for lunch.
The paperwork alone for filling out time sheets, delivering silly memos and taking care of reimbursements would make a conspiracy financially impossible and too slow to be effective.
Conspiracies don’t work by putting a bunch of people up front and in the public eye just because they have pretty faces.
Tags: Communications, fantasy football, journalism, journalist, journalists, media, morning show, news, PR, producer, producers
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
You are allowed to make statements that may not be elegant. But assuming no one outside your four walls will hear your words is a dangerous conclusion that can lead to ugly results.
This is basic media training in a modern world where about the only device still unable to record you is a refrigerator. I often stood in front of a camera long before a TV station actually took me live. But while standing and waiting there, I reminded myself to never say anything I wouldn’t want people to hear. I wasn’t yet on live TV, but I was wearing a microphone. Someone somewhere could hear me and simply needed to push a button to record me.
“Don’t say stupid things in any setting because everyone has a camera,” a TV news executive producer told me the day after Romney’s controversial video surfaced.
Despite this, I still saw politicians compile a string of curse words during side conversations while waiting to appear live. Some of the videos on YouTube showing public figures caught unknowingly on camera are legendary.
A big, red flashing light won’t warn you someone is capturing your words. And spreading those words is easier than ever.
Maybe you tell it like it is. That’s OK. Just ensure you really feel the way you do because someone just might share your comments with an unintended audience.
Tags: executive producer, live tv, media, media training, news, politicians, PR, tv news, TV station, video
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Sunday, September 16th, 2012
For a while, my mom would not loosen her grip on reading the newspaper or watching the evening news. She laments how people prefer to read headlines than stories and how subjectivity is replacing objectivity on air.
Then she bought an iPad. As if she hadn’t believed the technology headlines, the ability to read numerous newspapers online and in the palms of her hands fascinated her. She began considering what was once the unthinkable: canceling her newspaper subscription.
I already knew how often her eyes looked upon her iPad. She began replying to my emails within hours instead of the following day. And her responses mostly ended with the preprogrammed “Sent from my iPad.”
She recently reminded me something I told her about working in a TV newsroom. Near my desk, the anchors read on live TV afternoon teases to persuade viewers to tune into the 5pm news. I sometimes laughed at the teases, whispering to co-workers how I could learn the rest of the story immediately by Googling the topic. Some producers surprised me by not realizing people no longer needed to sit on the edges of their seats and wait hours to hear the latest details. The way the public consumed the news had changed and some in the business were, in a sense, still pecking away at typewriters.
I guess my point never fully resonated with my mom until she said how she feels addicted to her iPad. She feels addicted to knowing every minute might bring a new detail to a developing story and today’s technology puts those constantly changing headlines at her fingertips.
The frequent scenes of people in restaurants or just about anywhere always staring down at their tablets or smartphones bring their own troubles. People appear to make less conversation and miss the little things occurring around them. But on The Flip Side, the evolution of journalism is unmistakable, although my mom has not abandoned the evening news. She might not watch ABC, CBS or NBC live anymore. But she never misses it due to her DVR.
Tags: CBS, ipad, journalism, live tv, media, Media Relations, mom, nbc, news, newsroom, PR, producer, producers, smartphone, technology, tv news, tv newsroom
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Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
After I left TV news, one of the first videos I put together was for an animal shelter. The shelter told me it suffered from misconceptions about the conditions of their animals. I edited the video and showed it to a colleague for review. He criticized the video for addressing the concerns about the animals. He recommended against reminding people of the “problem.”
I disagree. The video must address the problems and provide answers. The video’s purpose is to find new people to adopt those animals. The video must convert opinions and transform them. If you don’t address the critics, the viewers walk away with the same doubts they started with. Without addressing your critics, you’re simply speaking to your supporters. You’ve already got their votes! You want the votes you don’t have!
Many businesses don’t address the criticisms they face. They put on smiling faces and come up with clever lines. They hope those gimmicks are enough to persuade people to ignore the naysayers. Sometimes the approach works. However, sometimes the approach only makes one particular target audience happy … and that audience is the one already in your pocket.
On behalf of President Obama at the Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton, as if checking off a to-do list, addressed one by one the political criticisms of the current White House. Clinton even spent a chunk of time directly discussing the biggest anchor weighing down Obama: the economy. Some media experts may have advised not talking about the economy. They may have argued “Let’s not remind them about that. Let’s focus on better achievements.” That plan doesn’t work.
Yes, you want to fire up your base. But most of your base will vote for you. Everyone in the convention hall likely will vote for you. That’s not your target audience. Your target audience: the people not in your corner. You know what they hear. You know how they feel. Hit the pink elephant in the room head on. Don’t pretend she’s not standing there. Everyone is thinking it.
You may quibble with some of Bill Clinton’s facts or analysis. You may dislike the man himself. That’s not the point. The point is this: If you want to win and if you want to make more money, one of your key goals is to convert the hearts and minds of those who simply don’t get you. And that works whether you’re running for president or running a little animal shelter.
Tags: animal shelter, democratic national convention, media, media experts, media training, money, news, obama, pink elephant, PR, president bill clinton, target audience, tv news, video, white house clinton
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