One of the first questions we ask media training delegates is what they think journalists want from their interviewees. Very often, delegates think  the journalist wants to catch them out, trip them up, give them a hard time.

Now, this can true – especially if you are an elected official, or you are in public service, or your business or organisation has done something wrong. In those cases, the role of the journalist is quite rightly to hold you to account. They will press you for answers to uncomfortable or difficult questions.

It is these interviews which generate headlines, which go viral on social media and which are shared by media trainers as bad – or good – examples of how to respond.

So they give a distorted view of how all journalists will behave and what all interviews will be like.

In most cases, journalists want information.

They are interviewing you because you are launching a product or a campaign or a piece of research, or because you are an expert in your field, or because you can provide balance to an alternative viewpoint.

In each of these cases, they want you to share your knowledge and expertise, to explain the background to a particular issue or topic in a way which will be interesting for their audience.

Even when you’re sharing your own expertise, you still need to prepare for every single interview:

• research the journalist and their media outlet so you know what approach they’re likely to take
• think about the questions that might be asked
• work with your communications team to frame your answers in the most accessible, interesting and impactful way
• ask who else they’re interviewing
• identify the worst or left-field questions they could ask – do you can prepare how to respond.

And this last point is one we always go through in our media training courses – how to deal with “ambush” questions elegantly, so that you either make it clear that you won’t discuss that issue, or steer your answer back to your key message.

Contact us to find out more about our media training courses.