Employees are taught how to interact with the news media and how to get positive media coverage for their companies through media training. It is usually given to employees in communications departments, as well as managers, executives, and other organizational representatives who may be called upon to speak to the media. The ultimate goal of media training is to help organizations better control and protect their reputations improving the communication skills of employees who speak with the news media.
Media training aims to improve the accuracy of an organization’s coverage. It teaches participants how to clarify organizational messages and deliver key points in a clear and concise manner. It instructs participants on how much information to give to the media, how to speak more succinctly, and how to stay focused on the intended message. Participants will benefit from media training if they want to better understand their target audiences and how to communicate with them.
One of the main objectives of media training is to make participants feel more at ease and confident when speaking to the press. It aims to make them feel in command of the situation during an interview. The appropriate length of answers, how to deflect uncomfortable questions, how participants should respond if they don’t know the answers to questions, how to reinforce key messages, and other topics may be covered during training. Role playing and videotaped, simulated interviews are frequently used in training sessions.
For specific types of media interviews, such as television, radio, and print, training is available. It could include topics like what to wear to television interviews and how to sit in front of the camera. It may serve as a reminder to participants that microphones are on and that they should not say anything that could be construed as inappropriate. It’s possible that topics like how to be succinct in timed television and radio interviews while still getting your point across will be discussed. One of the things that might be taught in media training is the best ways to handle unexpected questions in live situations.
Presentation skills and how to do slide presentations may also be covered in media training. It could cover topics such as how to properly organize content on slides, how to make them visually appealing, and when to discuss each slide. Other topics may be discussed, such as not reading directly from the slides and how to use bullet points as prompts.
Organizations occasionally hire outside firms to conduct media training. Other organizations conduct the training with media relations experts from their own communications departments. Depending on the organization, media training can be done one-on-one or in a group setting.