Managing media issues and crises – workshop outline

Presenters/facilitators

2 presenters
2 reporters (one from TV and one from radio)
Organisation representatives

Objectives

Develop skills in dealing with hostile questions from the media, and more awkward media scenarios
Apply principles of issues management to media management
Recognise the advantages of using the media as a business strategy

Workshop evaluation

Reaction-based: We give you a feedback sheet to fill out at the end of workshop. We collate the results (we don’t edit them) and return them to the commissioning organisation.
Learning: We assess your learning on an individual basis throughout the workshop and give both oral and written feedback.
Behavioural: We give you individual feedback as you practise the skills in the workshop. We also provide individual feedback forms.
Impact on the business: After the workshop, yourorganisation can assess feedback on media coverage and the extent of coverage.

Workshop preparation

We interview each participant in advance, by email or phone, to help determine media scenarios for interview practice, and issues for media management.

Program outline

9 am start

Introduction: individual experiences and objectives

Benefits of media strategies

Key issues and scenarios for the organisation in the next 5 years:

issues most likely to be misunderstood or misinterpreted
difficult media scenarios

Principles of controlling the agenda

Risk communication and issues management

Recap on format of TV stories with examples – news and current affairs

Difficult interviews on TV – demonstration interviews, which are then played back

Discussion with TV journalist about investigative TV journalism

Individual recorded interviews with journalists about key issues; using scenario cards, participants are given a scenario to be questioned on and the journalist is given some extra information on that scenario:

preparation by individuals
individual interviews
playback and feedback

Lunch

Dealing with unexpected interviews; the ‘doorstop’ interview or unexpected phone calls

Press conferences

Radio current affairs – discussion with radio journalist about format, pitfalls etc

Simulate ‘live to air’ interviews (3-5 mins) with journalist about selected scenarios, involving two protagonists.

Feedback/discussion

Recap issues management