Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [76]
Effective use of the media enables you to potentially reach millions of people who otherwise might not hear what you have to say. When you are being interviewed or quoted or a sound bite of something you said is used on the evening news, you are, in a sense, using the media. This is true whether your goal is to win votes, sell your new book, raise money for charity, defend your reputation or point of view, widen your reputation among your business or professional peers, get new clients, become better known as an expert or analyst on a specialized subject, or simply to tell the world about a new product, event, or artistic or scientific accomplishment. In other words, every time you deal with the media, you are being provided with a golden opportunity to say what you want to say.
As a “mediagenic” person, you will find yourself entering an array of media situations, not all of which directly involve reporters or members of the press. You will use your communication skills to cope with both the expected and the unexpected.
Here are some of the situations in which you may find yourself:
• Making a speech
• Participating in a press conference
• Presiding at a club or other kind of group meeting
• Teaching a course
• Moderating or serving as a member of a panel
• Being interviewed by a reporter—for newspaper, newsletter, magazine, TV, or radio
• Conducting a seminar
• Debating a current vital issue
• Conducting a tour
• Making a face-to-face confrontation
• Announcing your candidacy for public office
• Acting as a spokesperson for a VIP client as his or her attorney, physician, etc.
• Having a very important telephone conversation, such as making a business deal or talking an important person into doing something (giving you a job, donating money, or endorsing your new book)
• Participating in a video teleconference; participating in a two-way audio conference
• Canvassing for charity
• Doing a thirty-second sound bite
• Appearing on a radio or TV program as a guest
• Being the keynote speaker at an important affair or introducing the keynote speaker at an important affair
• Testifying before a congressional subcommittee
• Answering hostile questions
• Being “ambushed” by a reporter with a hand mike
• Reading a formal statement, even in the middle of a crisis or a natural disaster
• Gracefully thanking employees or supporters
Thus, in many of the above situations, while you may not be dealing directly with the media, what you are doing is often being observed by members of the public and can therefore end up the business of a reporter as well.
This chapter will help you to feel comfortable in a wide variety of media-related situations. Most types of media situations are included in this chapter, with the exception of TV studio appearances, which are covered separately in the following chapter, “Appearing on Television.” (Note, however, that a few TV-related situations such as teleconferences are included in this chapter.)
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
As a public person, you may be called upon to participate in press conferences, of which there are many different types in these days of instant news. You may be announcing your candidacy for public office, explaining a medical breakthrough, or speaking to the press in the aftermath of a national disaster.
Nearly every entity that exists today gives press conferences—from museums and zoos to NASA. Businesses now hold press conferences for a variety of reasons, including to announce: a new product or service; a merger; a sale or acquisition of a subsidiary enterprise; a patent on a new drug or chemical or manufacturing process; or the opening of a new plant or closing of an old one.
A company may call a press conference to defend or explain something—often a negative situation—such as pollution, an explosion, a product