As Mavis Williams dominates the headlines this morning you may be wondering why she is gaining almost as much coverage as her grandson who just won gold.
The self-styled #OlympicNan has been the focus of radio, television and newspapers interviews in both the build-up to the Men’s 100m backstroke final and after her grandson earned Team GB’s first medal of the Rio Games.
The reason is she ticks the human interest box which journalists always look for in their stories.
It’s the same reason why friends of our other overnight medallist Jazz Carlin have been busy doing media interviews all morning. These people know the athletes and can build a picture of the adversity and challenges they have overcome and the sacrifices they have made to become an Olympic star.
As a proud grandmother who has taken to Twitter to show her support for her Olympian grandson Mavis also ticks the ‘unusual’ box – another key component in what journalists look for in a story. She even signs off all her tweets ‘love nan’.
The Olympics, of course, has a long history of human interest stories which have an unusual element, and not just about those who have won medals. For example, who can forget Eric Moussambami, or Eric the Eel as he became known, the Equatorial Guinea swimmer, who had not seen an Olympic sized pool before arriving at the Sydney Olympics?
Or how about swimming pool attendant Hamadou Djibo Issaka who made the 2012 Olympics as a rower despite only taking up the sport three months before his heat? He may have finished last but ‘Issaka the Otter’ grabbed both the public’s and the media’s attention.
Now, a corporate spokesperson probably does not want their grandmother to get involved in their media interviews. Nor will they necessarily have stories of gruelling triumph over adversity to tell.
But they will have a story to tell about how they got to their current position and letting people in on that can be a vital component of media success.
The wider human factor is absolutely crucial if your story is going to pass the newsworthy test.
We tell participants on our media training courses that journalists look at potential news stories and ask ‘so what does this mean to the man on the street?’. At the very least they want to know who the people are behind the story. Who had the idea, who is supporting the idea and who the idea affects.
They know that their audience is fascinated by stories about people. They do not share the same fascination for policies, initiatives, ‘output statistics’ and protocols. It’s humans that bring stories to life.
'It’s humans that bring media stories to life' via @mediafirstltd bit.ly/2aEUMmG
So ahead of your next media interviews consider what is in your story for people and what impact your announcement will have on your customers.
And think about how you can tick the unusual box. Is what you are announcing the first? The biggest? The smallest?
If you can deliver human interest and something unusual in your media interviews and messages you will gain more coverage and have a greater chance of controlling the story.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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