Learning Objectives
Discuss the purpose of the media interview.
Understand ways to prepare for the media interview.
At some point in your business career, you will likely be interviewed by a media representative. It may be a camera and microphone in your face as you leave a building or a scheduled interview where you have an opportunity to prepare. A press interview is both a challenge and an opportunity. It may make you nervous like a speech, but you have the advantage of being the center of attention and having the opportunity to have your say. This chapter addresses the basics for preparing and participating in a press interview.
A media interview is a discussion involving questions and answers for the purpose of broadcast. It is distinct from an informational interview (McLean, S., 2005), where you might be asked questions to learn the background of a story, but you will still need to observe the three hallmark rules of interviews:
- Anything you say can and often will be used against you.
- Never say anything you feel uncomfortable hearing quoted out of context on the evening news.
- Be prepared for the expected as well as the unexpected.
At first, those rules may sound extreme, but let’s examine them in the context of today’s media realities. In a press interview setting, you will be recorded in some fashion, whether audio, video, or handwritten notes on a reporter’s notepad. With all the probability of errors and misinterpretation, you want your words and gestures to project the best possible image to the press. There was a time when news programs didn’t have to justify themselves with advertising dollars, but today, all news is news entertainment and has to pay its own way. That means your interview will be used to attract viewers. You also have to consider the possibility that the person interviewing you is not a trained professional journalist but rather an aspiring actor or writer who happened to land a job with the media. From their perspective, your quote in an audio, video, or print content package is dinner. It may also serve the public good and inform or highlight an important cause, but news has a bottom line, just like business.
Because of these factors, you need to be proactive in seeing the press interview as part of the overall spectacle, which is media devoted to revenue. The six-second quote taken from the interview may not represent your comments’ tone, range, or substance, but it will have been chosen to grab attention. It will also go viral if it catches on. Your interviewer may ask you a question that is off-the-wall, inappropriate, outside the scope of the interview, or unusual just to catch you off guard and get that attention-worthy quote. Independent journalism with a nonprofit, inform-the-public orientation still exists in some forms, but even those media outlets have to support themselves with an audience. So consider your role in the interview: to provide information and represent your business or organization with honor and respect. A good defense is required in sports, business, and press interviews.
That said, a press interview is a positive opportunity, whether planned in advance or caught off guard in public. For example, you are the focus of the interview, and many people believe that because you are on television, you have something to say, have special insight, or are different from the viewing audience. That can give you an edge of credibility that can serve your business or company as you share your knowledge and experience.
When asked to give an interview, before you agree, learn as much as possible about the topic, the timing, the format, and the background. Table 15.5.1 summarizes how to approach these factors.
These four areas will help you define the range and content of the interview. You must also pay attention to the setting and scene, how you want to present yourself (dress or suit?), and how well you answer anticipated questions. Mock interviews with colleagues can help, and a comprehensive knowledge of your talking points is essential.
You want to be well rested, if at all possible, on the day of the interview. With a clear mind, you will be agile and responsive, and you will be able to present yourself well. You’ll be calm in the knowledge of your preparation and not be thrown if an unexpected question comes your way. You’ll be ready on time, understanding that most journalists must package the story quickly, demonstrating respect for the interviewer. You’ll also know that it is not just about what you say but how you say it. Audiences respond to emotional cues, and you want to project an image of credibility and integrity. You’ll anticipate the question-and-answer pattern and limit your responses to clear and concise ones. You’ll have visual aids ready if needed to make a point.
Naturally, however, you may not have the luxury of time to prepare. Press interviews are often requested at the last minute, and you may not be the first person this reporter asked for an interview that day. They have a story in mind and want you to participate. If the opportunity to be interviewed arises on the spur of the moment, you must quickly decide whether to agree or decline. Your decision will rest on many factors, such as how much you know about the topic, whether someone in your organization is better qualified to answer, whether your employer would appreciate your agreeing to speak to the media, and so on. If something newsworthy occurs at your workplace, start thinking about how you would make this decision before being put on the spot. Finally, if the topic of the media inquiry is not time urgent, remember that you can always ask to postpone the interview to allow time to prepare.
Key Takeaway
A press interview is both a challenge and an opportunity.
Exercises
How does the press interview serve the business or organization? List two ways and provide examples. Discuss your ideas with classmates.
Consider the following scenario. Your large company is opening a new office in a new town, and you have been designated to be part of the team that will be on the front lines. You want to establish goodwill but also recognize that, being an outsider, the local business community may not welcome you and your company with open arms. Your company produces a product and provides a service (feel free to choose a coffee shop, for example) currently offered in the town, but your organization perceives room for market growth and market share. Describe how you would handle relations with the local media. Compare your ideas with those of a classmate.
Form a team of interviewees and interviewers. Take ten-minute turns, with one person playing the role of interviewee and the other the interviewer. Record your exchange and post it as a file attachment in your class (if applicable), or post it to YouTube or a similar Web hosting site and post the link. Write a report of your experience in at least two hundred words.
Observe a press interview. How do they take turns? Does the interviewee ever look nervous? What could he or she have done to improve their performance? Write a brief suggestion and provide the link to the interview.
Find a sample press interview on a video Web site such as YouTube and evaluate it based on the guidelines in this chapter. Was it effective? Why or why not? Present your findings to the class.
Find at least one example of an interview gone bad. It may involve a misquotation, expressions of frustration or anger, or even an interview cut short. What happened? Provide a brief summary and link to the interview.
McLean, S. (2005). The basics of interpersonal communication. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
This page titled 15.5: Media Interviews is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Anonymous (LibreTexts Staff), from which source content was edited to the style and standards of the Pressbook platform licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License by Brandi Schur.
