It can feel like coronavirus is the only story around. Endless broadcast coverage, devastating headlines, pages of print and press conference beamed directly into our homes.
Picture the scene. You are pretty sure your spokesperson is coming towards the end of their media interview.
Announcing a reduction to your workforce is a daunting and unpleasant challenge for any leader and organisation. It is even harder if just a couple of months earlier you had promised those same workers that their jobs would be safe.
Explaining complex information and ideas is not easy. And it can be even harder to communicate it effectively in media interviews. Many interviews are based on complex information. Think how many stories are in the news about scientific breakthroughs, academic research, technological advancements and healthcare improvements.
It’s everyone’s worst nightmare. You’re in the middle of a presentation or at to a critical point in a media interview and suddenly your mind goes blank.
Everyone seems to have had their say on Dominic Cummings and his infamous trip to Durham. It has dominated the news agenda for much of the past week.
It’s everyone’s worst nightmare. You’re in the middle of a presentation or coming to a critical point in a media interview and suddenly your mind goes blank.
When was the last time you saw a spokesperson interviewed in a studio? For the time being at least, coronavirus has made face-to-face interviews a thing of the past.
You won’t be surprised to learn that as a media training company, we watch a lot of interviews. There’s always something others can learn from them.
How are you managing with the move to online meetings? Are you finding that they are less focused? Are attendees taking it as an invitation to multi-task? Are you finding that a couple of participants are dominating the conversation while others seem to be zoning out?
It is not often a spokesperson feels the need to apologise after a media interview. But that is what one chief executive did after his TV performance was met with damaging headlines and a social media backlash.
If you don’t have anyone to tell your story, no one will hear it. Spokespeople promote their organisation’s achievements and defend its reputation during crisis media management incidents and they can tighten their media skills with presentation skills training and learn the qualities of a good presenter.
The bridging technique is one of the cornerstones of media training and an essential tool with which to control a media interview.
If you are a regular reader of this media training blog, you’ll know we have discussed the complexity of the ‘guarantee’ question before.
For many businesses, the initial few weeks of lockdown were spent ensuring they could ‘continue as normal’ and figuring out what that new ‘normal’ is.
We’ve always stressed the importance of effective internal communications during a crisis. And that has never been truer than during the coronavirus crisis.
You probably don’t need us to tell you that the government’s latest coronavirus messaging has been met with a chorus of disapproval.
During this time of global crisis, many brands have been thinking of ways they can help out and show social responsibility.
Training by videoconference has grown over recent years. And as the coronavirus crisis has intensified and offices have closed, it is becoming even more prominent.
Do you remember when the Government said that 20,000 deaths would be a ‘good outcome’ and a 'good result' from the coronavirus crisis? Sadly, it turned out to be a target that couldn’t be met.
Did you watch our webinar on making your online meetings a success? If you did, you’ll know we were asked a number of questions by the audience. In fact, we had more questions than we had time to answer.
Chances are you are reading this at home. As the coronavirus crisis intensifies, we are all adapting to a new way of working. For some, this will be a relatively straightforward transition. But for most particularly those who usually spend much of their time in face-to-face customer and employee meetings, there are significant challenges.
News anchors presenting programmes from their living rooms and reporters trying to remain three metres away from those they are trying to interview for a vox pop.
“I don’t do statements. Statements are no good to man nor beast. Come on and say it yourself.” Not our words.
Boris Johnson had been criticised for his lack of visible leadership in recent weeks. Absent from the responses to the floods, he had also been coming under attack over the coronavirus with some suggesting he had already decided to self-isolate.
Earlier this week we mentioned in this media training blog how media spokespeople need to be prepared to face questions about the coronavirus even if they are talking about something completely unrelated.
Coronavirus is dominating the news and the coverage is getting more extensive. Already we have seen brands close stores, organisations shut down their offices and companies suspend factory lines.
On the face of it, it should have been a pretty innocuous photo. But when new chancellor Rishi Sunak posted a picture of himself making a round of hot drinks for his team, alongside a large bag of Yorkshire Tea, it caused a storm in a teacup for the brand.
If I had to name a journalist that I would be reluctant to face, Nick Ferrari would be right up there. The LBC presenter has a pretty ferocious reputation and has posed the forensic questions that have led spokespeople to produce some recent memorable media interview disasters.
It is understandable that health authorities don’t want the public to panic about the coronavirus. But could the desire to avoid that alarm and fear actually cause more hysteria?
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