Articles

Live television! Sometimes you just don’t know what you’re going to see and hear when a person on your tv screen doesn’t realize the camera is on and the microphone is hot. Over the years, we’ve seen many examples, some funny, some sad, many in between. However, for the person who makes the mistake, it’s usually embarrassing or downright...

During our media training workshops, clients sometimes ask if it’s appropriate to share personal experiences and anecdotes in answers to a reporter’s questions. Our advice depends on the topic and the circumstances of the interview. But as a rule of thumb, if your personal experiences are relevant to the topic, sharing them may help humanize you...

A college football player makes a late and very hard sideline hit on an opposing player. The incident is perceived by many as a dirty play that sends the University of Colorado’s Travis Hunter to the hospital with a lacerated liver. The player who made the hit, Colorado State’s Henry Blackburn, is condemned by many fans, some of whom actually...

When holding a crisis news briefing, the temptation is to start by describing a series of events in sequence from beginning to end. This may seem to make sense, until you realize you might be burying the most important message in your statement. The Minneapolis police chief may well have had this in mind when he addressed the media shortly after...

We love it when people show a special admiration and respect for their mothers. So, when NBA star Bam Adebayo got a phone call from his mom during a news briefing, we enjoyed the moment as he stopped taking media questions to talk with her. Adebayo displayed the kind of warmth we don’t often see in public figures and probably impressed the...

I’ve been coaching and training executives and managers my entire career. And, although much of our private coaching is for presentations, I’ve recently worked with people who have high potential, and are early in their careers who need help to develop solid communications skills. And, as I’ve been introduced to the on-line community of...

So, there’s a fire at a chemical plant and the flames and smoke can be seen for miles around. The company releases brief social media statements indicating there is no threat to the public. The news media descends on the site, expecting a company spokesperson to participate in a crisis news briefing. Instead, a county sheriff conducts the...

What is empathy and why is it so important to display it during a news briefing? Basically, empathy is showing your audience that you care about what they care about. If you succeed at this, your audience is more likely to trust and believe in you. Case in point involves the shooting deaths of five people, including a young boy, in San Jacinto...

One thing most reporters have in common is they love to interrupt the person they’re interviewing to ask another question. There are multiple reasons reporters tend to do this. But the reason shouldn’t matter to you during an interview. If you’re in the process of delivering a key message, don’t let the reporter interrupt you. It’s your job to...

So, you’re a spokesperson holding a news briefing on a topic that affects your company or organization. In the middle of the briefing, you get a question that you think is silly and irrelevant. You might be tempted to answer with a joke that makes fun of another person. Resist the temptation! White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre failed...