Media Training

We explain how the modern media operates in a contemporary digital environment, the role social media plays in news gathering for large news organisations, how the digital landscape has changed everything for media organisations and the specific dynamic of your relationship with reporters. Then, we will look at your interview with a journalist and ‘how to deal with the questions’. This will focus on how to respond to a wide range of questions from various journalists, how to navigate the challenging moments, the different types of interviews that you might do and how to best exploit the opportunity you’ve got. We’ll then talk about performance – how to ensure that you feel confident to deliver the story which best reflects what you want to say. How to stay positive and how to channel your nerves.

We deliver the preparation first – our specialised theory on high quality and effective communication techniques to create a strategic, audience focussed story. This focus is on ‘what to say’, it’s vital that you have a clear understanding of what it is you’re trying to land with audiences so you can engage with them. Doing an interview with a reporter is a media appearance – not audience engagement! It’s vital to understand the difference.

Our training reflects real life stories that you want to tell or issues you might be dealing with. All of our bespoke training means you’ll be interviewed about issues that matter to you. We’ll carry out research, as any journalist will do, to find out about your story. So this is an opportunity to create your narrative and plan your media interview.

This is where our practical elements begin. We will simulate a live ‘on air’ radio interview, replicating a live conversation with a ‘radio presenter‘ about your story. We will ‘broadcast’ this and record it for later playback and feedback. Playback and analysis: After you’ve been live on air, we will listen back to the interviews and ask, were you able to hold onto your message and deliver to the audience or were you being bounced from one issue to another by the presenter? We’ll support you as you develop your skills by offering supportive, inclusive and useful feedback.

Now we go onto delivering a ‘sound bite’, we will look at how you can become skilled at responding when your audience is not listening to you live on air, and you might be asked to deliver a quote. We’ll discuss additional techniques to help you, our journalism insider skills, tips and guidance to demonstrate the discipline needed to deliver the right sound bite and quote.

Now, we’ll ask you to deliver a sound bite to camera. Interviews take place, one at a time, on camera. This will be the opportunity to deliver the quote you are confident will illustrate your position. We’ll also show you some techniques for television appearances so you feel confident you know what to expect.

We watch and listen back to the interviews, were you able to hold onto your message and deliver your vision to the audience in a short soundbite?

We will fully support any questions you have and offer a considered reflection. Coherent Comms considers training delivery just the start of our relationship with you. After the training, we‘ll upload the recordings of the interviews you did for you to watch again. We also send bespoke course notes and access to our suite of ‘how to‘ films. We are always on the end of the phone on 0121 682 6223 should you want another practice before a media interview!