An experienced spokesperson will normally have a pretty good feel for what to expect in a media interview.
For example, if your organisation is in a crisis media management situation you know you are likely to be in for a challenging time and face a greater level of scrutiny from journalists.
But sometimes the most difficult interviews can be the ones where you have something positive to say.
You are already thinking of all the positive coverage your campaign is generating when suddenly your spokesperson faces a curveball interview.
A recent example of this was the interview of Oxford University Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson when she appeared on the Today Programme on Radio 4 yesterday (22/9).
The university had a fantastic story to tell having just topped the world university rankings for the first time.
But instead of discussing knocking the California Institute of Technology off the top sport, the journalist had other ideas and Professor Richardson found herself facing questions about wider higher education issues, such as whether universities should run schools, the impact of Brexit on the sector, and even freedom of speech.
Sure, the presenter introduced the story by saying Oxford had been ‘designated the world’s best university’, but the first question (1hr 50) was unrelated to the positive news story the university’s comms team were surely hoping to be interviewed on. In fact, Professor Richardson was not asked a single question about the rankings throughout the entire interview.
This can be a challenging scenario for any spokesperson. The key is not to fall into the trap of simply answering the questions put to you and instead, through media training techniques like bridging, try to steer the subject to what you want to talk about.
It’s also vital to avoid giving short answers no matter how frustrating you find the line of questioning. Short answers sound defensive and only serve to invite more questions, which cranks up the pressure.
Equally important is to avoid introducing your own negatives into the conversation. If you listened to the interview Professor Richardson, you may have noticed she mentioned she was ‘very worried’ about future research funding after the UK leaves the EU. The reporter naturally picked up on those concerns and probed further.
But, that said she also did a lot right in this unexpectedly challenging interview.
Although Professor Richardson presumably did not want to spend the entire interview talking about universities running schools, Brexit and freedom of speech, she was able to answer those questions and had clearly studied what else was on the media agenda which she could be asked about.
And she did not let the reporter put words in her mouth or repeat the negative language in his questions. Take this exchange during the questioning about universities running schools:
Reporter: “So you are saying then that other universities who do that or who are planning to do that are distracting from the teaching of their undergraduates.”
Professor Richardson: “I wouldn’t presume to comment on what others are doing.”
She could, perhaps, have gone on to bridge here to the rankings.
Importantly, Professor Richardson did not show any frustration at the line of questioning she faced and remained composed throughout.
Arguably the most infamous example of a ‘good news’ interview which became challenging was when the then BlackBerry European Managing Director Stephen Bates appeared on BBC Breakfast in 2013 to talk about its new phone and produced a car crash interview.
It all unravelled when he was asked a negative question about delays to the launch. Instead of providing an answer and then bridging away to a positive, he completely ignored the question and slipped into some corporate jargon nonsense.
The reporter asked again ‘what went wrong’ and was ignored and this scene was repeated over and over again to such an extent it is now part of media training folklore and a case study in how not to handle those unexpectedly challenging interviews.
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