Participate in Media Interviews

The interview is the fundamental mechanism for media representatives to elicit information from others and for project participants to provide information. Because of its importance to both parties, consider the following recommendations for interviews, whether conducted at press conferences, in other situations, or over the phone. See The Resource Library for a worksheet called Interview Tips and a worksheet called Media Interview Checklist.

Do your research. Conduct research on the Internet and at libraries to collect whatever facts, figures, and statistics you may want to use to make your case. But get your facts straight. Inaccurate information will diminish your efforts and backfire.

Be prepared. Don’t give interviews without significant preparation. Carefully develop your goals and objectives. Then, establish the main points that can support these goals and objectives. Develop these into literal bullet points on paper and review them several times.

Develop the message. Distill your primary points down to a basic message. What would you say if you could only say one sentence? That should be your message or theme. Everything else you say should support or enhance that message.

Prepare sound bites. Remember, interviewers want answers to such questions as Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Anticipate and develop specific answers to likely questions. Prepare several 10- to 12-word sound bites for broadcast media and several one- to three-line quotes for print media.

Be a great listener. Communication is a two-way street. When reporters ask you questions, they often paraphrase your answers and then ask for more detail, in part to ensure that they accurately understand you. When they don’t, repeat your point, perhaps using different language.

Remain on message. In some situations, reporters may purposefully mischaracterize your statement, play the devil’s advocate, or state the opinion of a real or hypothetical opponent of your position. If your message is mischaracterized, don’t “correct” the reporter, but restate your message, perhaps saying the same thing using different words.