The studio lights are blinding. Your make-up begins to run as you heat
up under the lights and the intensity of the interviewer glaring across the
desk from you. Help! This interview, which you were so happy to give, is turning
into a nightmare. Under the pressure, it's becoming too hard for you to concentrate
and get your message across.
Fortunately, this is just a trial run. The reporter sitting opposite you
is a media trainer. You're practicing for a television interview and are finding
out just what it's like to be in the hot seat.
"We put people in front of a video camera, so that they can feel what it's
like," says TJ Walker, a media trainer in New York. "It's a personal thing
to get in front of a camera and hear how you sound and see how you look."
Practice helps people who must deal with the media see how their message
is coming across to the viewer.
"People are sometimes surprised by what they see," says Frances Horner,
a media trainer. By showing people how they look before they get on a real
TV program, the media trainer can take steps to make them more at ease.
This training isn't just about how to appear your best. It's also about
understanding the media itself. "We help our clients understand how to work
with the media," says Horner. "They need to understand the different types
of media. They need to know how deadlines work."
For example, a client who will be giving an important TV interview needs
to learn different skills than someone sitting down for a relaxed and lengthy
print interview.
"TV interviews are about visuals and they are much shorter. They may run
only two minutes, and so someone has to really know how to get their message
across," says Horner.
The training methods for clients vary. They can be put in private sessions
or in group seminars where they do mock interviews and speeches. Answers are
analyzed and clients are given an opportunity to rethink the most effective
way to answer questions.
Some people may visit a media trainer one time to get tips on how to deal
with media. Or they may receive continual grooming.
People like high-profile politicians preparing for a debate get extensive
help on how to come across well on camera and how to avoid pitfalls.
Politicians and people in large companies generally make up a lot of the
business for media trainers.
"Politicians and people in private industry -- in my case, people in the
health-care industry are big clients," says Mark Bernheimer, a media trainer
in Los Angeles. But he says people from all walks of life can benefit from
learning about the media.
"I helped an 11-year-old boy who was a patient at a children's hospital,"
he says. "He was launching a toy drive, and needed help learning how to give
an interview and deal with the media."
So how exactly does a media trainer know what works in the media and what
doesn't? Bernheimer relies on his many years as a TV reporter. He covered
big events such as the O.J. Simpson trial and interviewed high-profile subjects
such as Henry Kissinger.
"The most important thing you can give someone is the perspective of what
it's like on the other side," he says.
Walker agrees that in order to convince people, it's essential to have
the expertise. But it's also important to be able to convince people that
they can be successful.
"If I hear someone stand up and give a bad speech, it's not enough for
me to tell them what was wrong," he says. He goes further and shows them how
it could be better.
"As I'm listening, I evaluate what's garbage, what needs to be tweaked
and what's interesting in the speech, and when they're done I stand up and
give the speech again," he says.
Often clients wish that Walker would give the speech himself. But he gives
them a model and shows them that the information they are imparting can be
done in a much more effective way.
Being sensitive with clients in these situations can be one of the challenges
of the job. Horner says that dealing with people's preconceived notions of
the media can also be difficult.
"People are suspicious of the media and their motives," she says. "I try
to explain that the media are just doing their job, and aren't out to get
you all the time."
Because of this fear, people may often answer "No comment" when asked for
an opinion by a reporter.
"It can be an immediate response. But there may be a better thing that
can be said -- something that will impart beneficial information," says Horner.
She says it isn't her goal just to coach people on sound bites. "This training
is an opportunity to encourage people to work more closely with the media.
It's more than just working on appearances."
If media training was just about looking better on TV and sounding better
on radio, it might be questionable as to whether the service is actually helping
or hindering the viewers or listeners.
Bernheimer says that while working as a journalist, he never knew if an
interviewee had been trained. "But it was easy to tell when someone was good
at it," he says. "It was easy to know when someone could get their message
across smoothly and be articulate."
Ultimately, he believes that interview subjects who are more at ease and
who can get their message across make better subjects. It's easier for a reporter
to engage them, and ultimately easier for the audience to understand them.
"You want someone who understands the media and is articulate."