Recently during a media training session in Perth, I came across a client who has previously had some media training. He came to my course as a refresher, to build on what he already knew. I asked what he remembered most about the communication and media training he’d had, and his answer was something I’ve heard many times.
“I learned I should ignore the question and just keep repeating my message”.
If you’ve had the same advice, please file it away in a vault never to be opened again. The advice is outdated and doesn’t do your reputation any favours. As someone who has worked in newsrooms for many years, and still does, I could not disagree more with this style of media training.
Here’s the truth. You cannot simply ignore the question. It is not an option.
The trick is to answer the question, no matter how challenging it may be, and then seamlessly transition the conversation towards your message. It takes practice.
In most cases there’s nothing inherently wrong with directly answering the question. If you’ve been part of my media training sessions, you’ll have heard me say it over and over – “just answer the question”! Answer the question, and use the opportunity to follow it up with where you want the conversation to go. There are a bunch of techniques to help you do this.
If you can’t answer it, at least acknowledge it. You can do it pretty seamlessly with some practice.
If you ignore the question altogether and just repeat your message, you’ll sound like one of those politicians from the 90’s we so desperately dislike. The advice to ‘stay on message’ is good, but that doesn’t mean you ignore the questions.
Follow this media training tip and you might be surprised at the control you can keep. I’ve even incorporated it into other aspects of my life, much to the delight of my husband who’s thrilled with how easily I turn our conversations around ?
Communication classes can help.
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