Do “ambush interviews” help during media training?
Great posting from Eric Bergman on the IABC Media Relations Commons blog about the value of fake ambush interviews during training sessions. On the face of it, making someone do an interview with no prep, on the spot, seems like a good way of showing the importance of preparation, but Bergman argues that it does more harm than good, making an already nervous trainee more nervous and scaring the rest of the class. He also suggests that the tactic is indirectly being used to place the trainer in a position of pwoer. Many of the posted comments agree.
Not sure where I stand on this. Seems like there might be ways to do this without terrifying people. I want to post about this more down the road. Of course, having a video of a real interview where the person wasn’t prepared might be just as effective… what do you think?
Bergman also points out that, in the real world, ambush interviews (where the person isn’t just unprepared, but has no idea anyone would even want to interview them) are virtually non-existent anyway - and that I would certainly agree with.
Posted: June 23rd, 2006 under Media Coaching Techniques.