The Media Interview

In a previous post I wrote about injecting your interview answers with references to well-known current events, social trends, etc. How do you brainstorm about what’s current? One way is through Technorati, a real-time blog search engine. Steve Rubel gave me the idea when he talked about using Technorati searches as a type of focus group. Find out what a lot of people are blogging about and you’ve got something that should ring a bell with a large majority of your audience. And because you’re seeing what people have posted just minutes ago, your research is guaranteed to be up to date.

There are a couple of ways to search Technorati for trends - you could look at the top searches or hottest tags lists (a tag is like a category), or you can enter your own search phrase or tag. Be sure to enclose phrases in quotation marks and sort your results by what Technorati calls authority - authority is based on the number of links to a site. Then look for common threads in the discussions and refer to those in your interview.

Thought language-lovers might love this site - Celebrity English - which teaches proper english through… celebrities. It features great titles for its posts, such as: “Nicole Kidman, an Error in Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement, and a Dangling Participle”.

Not sure why using proper english is important during an interview? Check out this earlier post of mine

Britney Spears has done a Demi - not the “shack up with a younger man” bit; the “pregnant nude on a magazine cover” bit - with her August Harpers Bazaar cover. So, let’s review.

You’re going to be interviewed by a mass market publication, but you don’t want to be lost among the celebrity confessions, weight-loss miracles, and home-decorating tips. Simple. Offer to do a nude cover, and, if the publication’s lead time (and nature) permits, get pregnant.

For those interested in the numbers, notice how (June 27-28) this cover helped keep Britney from dropping in her Technorati chart following the frenzy of posts about her Dateline interview (June 16th). I’ll update this with magazine sales when they become available…

Here’s an item on Newstand Nudes in general.

And if no one has emailed you the cover yet, you can see it over and over again here.

I was watching a TV satellite interview the other day and thinking how difficult it must be to do a media tour that way. Visiting thirty cities has its own difficulties, but with satellite you’re doing up to a dozen interviews per hour for several hours a day, and you need to be fresh and interesting each time while repeating the same material you just did five minutes ago. Not only that, you have to do it talking to a camera rather than a person. Next time your favourite movie star is plugging their current movie via satellite, flip around to several stations that day and see how they do on each segment.

BTW, if you’re going to be interviewed by satellite, here are some resources:
Satellite interview tips from communications consultants Wixted Pope Nora Thompson & Associates.
Useful insights from a number of speakers who’ve done satellite tours - especially the one about remembering that the feed is always live, whether an interview is taking place or not, so watch what you say and do .

Always set a good example when doing a broadcast interview; you never know who may be listening. Spotted this at Tips to Boost Your English Language skills for ESL students

13. Listen to TV interview shows (like CNN or Headline News), the late-night news, and talk radio call-in shows.

Found this great quote from a 1970 article about two radio talk show hosts who had started doing TV interviews:

They research they’re [sic] weekly subjects thoroughly before going on the air, even to the point of reading their guests’ books and come prepared with questions that will stimulate, rather than stifle, conversation.

Imagine that! Anybody experienced an interview where the interviewer just didn’t bother to look at the book?

Scott Baradell on Media Orchard posted a couple of great examples of how one word can change the tone of a quote from an interview - for instance, “could not” vs. “refused”.

Scott talks about reporters deliberately using certain words to reflect their view of the story, but I think more often than not, at least in smaller media markets, it’s simply a lack of understanding of the subtle (and even not so subtle) differences in meanings. Better educated journalists, both in literacy and in critical thinking skills, would go a long way to improve the situation.

Caught part of Glenn Beck’s CNN TV show last night and I’d have to say it’s a pale imitation of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. What I find disturbing about that statement is that Stewart’s show is a comedy/parody, while Beck - an influential radio talk show host (#3 syndicated talk show in the US) - is doing his show under the guise of a legitimate social/political commentator/interviewer. Yet he’s clearly trying to do what Stewart does.

To be fair, Beck’s website has the sub-title “the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment”, but it was clear in what I saw last night that entertainment was in the driver’s seat. I found it weak entertainment at best: many of the jokes (like the reporter “tracking down” Beck’s french ancestry) seemed forced, Beck is constantly grinning in an effort to keep up the energy, and the level of humour was often sophmoric (though that’s hardly Beck’s fault since that’s what a lot of people want these days). Perhaps Beck is trying too hard and, given that the show debuted in May 2006, he may not yet have found his stride. I’ll give a listen to his radio show and pass along some thoughts on that.

Can’t help adding that a wonderfully ironic moment came when Beck (interviewing Henry Winkler about the movie Click) commented on the fact that it was the Fonz’s jumping over a shark during the decline of Happy Days which gave rise to the phrase “jumping the shark”, meaning that a TV series is past its prime. If what I saw last night (not just the interview) is any indication, his own shark may already have jumped… a few times.

To keep up with Shark Jumping on TV in general, you’ll want to visit jumptheshark.com

My post about not mindlessly repeating your key message in an interview got me thinking about forumulating a key message and that got me thinking about elevator pitches. “Elevator pitch” is a term that originated with entrepreneurs trying to pitch a business idea to venture capitalists in the time it took to ride the elevator up to their office. It’s used more generally now to mean getting your point across quickly and effectively - which is why I find it so useful in doing media interview prep.

Depending on how many floors the ride is people put the elevator pitch between 15 and 30 seconds - about the length of many media sound-bites - and that’s what you should strive for in preparing your message for an interview. You may or may not actually do your elevator pitch during the interview, but it’s a great mental hook on which to base your interview responses - it keeps you coming back to the essentials of your message. It’s also very handy for those potentially awkward openings like “So, tell me about your product…”.

Here are some sites where you can hone your elevator pitch, then put it online and have others comment on it and rate it:
The 15 Second Pitch
Your Elevator Pitch

Came across an interesting posting/discussion on the IABC Media Relations blog about “staying on message”. Natasha Spring was making the point that simply repeating your message and not directly answering the reporter/interviewer’s question is a bad idea. She’s talking about media relations spokespeople in particular, but it applies equally well to anyone who’s being interviewed. At best, mere repetition of the same point sounds like you’re a bad listener; at worst, it sounds like you’re hiding something.

The important point that comes out of the comments on the IABC blog, I think, is that you need to separate having a key message you want to deliver during the interview from delivering a key message no matter what happens. You need to listen to what the interviewer is asking/saying, address it, and if possible, relate your answer back to your key message. An interview is a conversation and you wouldn’t (I hope ) just talk on and on as if the other person’s comments didn’t exist.

I’ll try to find some posted examples of this kind of mindless repetition in a live interview - if you spot one, share it with us in a comment.