Why ‘Off the Record’ is a High-Wire Act Best Avoided
By Hennes Communications Q: A reporter wants to interview me, and I don’t want to be identified as the source of the information. What do I do? A: The reporter’s goal is to interview you with no strings attached – everything you say and do can be reported. This is called “on the record” and […]
Why You Should Take Citizen Journalists with a Smartphone Very Seriously
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] There are always raised eyebrows in our media training sessions when we tell participants they are always on the record – that in today’s social media world you’re not only on the record with reporters, you’re on the record whenever you talk about your company at the grocery store, on […]
Get Inside a Reporter’s Head to Prep for a Media Interview
[by Howard Fencl] When you’re faced with a media interview on a breaking crisis or a tough issue your organization’s working through, media training experts will tell you to anticipate the toughest questions you can imagine. But taking a step further and anticipating the reporter’s approach to covering your issue is a critically important exercise. […]
A Brief History of Television Interviews – and Why Live TV Helps Those Who Lie and Want to Hide
From Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor, Communication and Journalism, University of Maine, writing for The Conversation: First, it happened on Fox News. Chris Wallace asked White House adviser Stephen Miller about the president’s decision to use private lawyers “to get information from the Ukrainian government rather than go through … agencies of his government.” Miller’s response began, […]
Take a Breath: Legal Considerations for Your Communications
From Madelaine C. Lane, writing for the Grand Rapids Business Journal: It’s a story we see play out all too often on the evening news: An organization or one of its employees is hit with a search warrant, subpoena or a civil lawsuit. Before the receptionist, communications director or CEO can turn around, a microphone […]
Take the Opportunity to Tell Your Story – After You Prepare and Practice
Q. What do I do if the media wants to talk to me? A. Start by asking yourself what you think when you read or hear that the subject of a story – particularly a story in which others are critical of the person or the person’s organization – says “no comment” or that the […]
How Best to Convey “Executive Presence” Non-Verbally
From Dan Hill, writing for CommPro: From U.S. presidents to NFL quarterbacks, I’ve studied their signature facial expressions—looking for the patterns that indicate success. Maybe you weren’t the first choice for the C-suite corner office you now have, but surely you weren’t the 199th overall pick for the job (like the New England Patriot’s Tom […]
Body Language and Leadership Effectiveness – How to Achieve ‘Executive Presence’
From CommPro, written by Dr. Nick Morgan, Author: Most of us think of charisma, or executive presence, as something mysterious and elusive that certain executives are born with or are trained to achieve in some executive school we haven’t been invited to. We all know we need that mysterious quality when we’re in front of […]
The Audience in the Mind’s Eye: How Journalists Imagine Their Readers
By James G. Robinson, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review: A central irony of the newsroom is that while many journalists’ decisions are made with readers in mind, the audiences for their work often remain unfocused, imagined abstractions, built on long-held assumptions, newsroom folklore, and imperfect inference. This is not particular to journalism. Writing, like […]
Why “Winging It” is Not an Option for Your News Interview
By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications Very few people are naturally gifted at doing an interview. Our knee-jerk reaction is to just answer a reporter’s questions – or to clam up and hide behind “no comment” because that’s what we’ve seen on TV time and time again. If all you do is answer questions, you have […]