California Dairy Leaders Class IV

Session 1 Journal – Media Training

By Monique Moretti

Day 2 started at the California Milk Advisory Board offices where we were introduced to Janet and Jolane whose job it was to train us to be able to do a successful interview, and boy, did they have their work cut out for them! The first thing we did was to introduce ourselves, so Janet and Jolane could get to know us. After introductions, Janet shared an overview of issues.

The first thing Janet stressed is that “nothing is ever off the record.” She wanted us to understand that the news media likes controversial issues that are unusual and human, and reporters are deadline oriented and pressured to be the first with the story. Since there is a multitude of media outlets (newspapers, TV, radio stations, magazine, and now thousands of internet sites) it is important to have our side of the story clearly told. Reporters are always looking for the conflict, and it is human nature for the public to want to know.

Janet stressed that since we remember 80% of what we see and only 10% of what we hear, and we will only remember 2% after 30 days, we need to use stand-alone quotes that are down to earth and easy to understand. She recommended talking about family involvement and dedication. It is important to get the attention of the audience in a positive way, with the right message in terms that can be easily understood, remembered, and is believable. We learned that consumers care about issues such as product safety and quality; animal health and welfare; and urban encroachment and the environment.

The Dairy Leaders class members shared ways that we could convey to the public our values concerning safety and strict adherence to regulations, and explain our many efforts taken to enhance cow comfort and health, to be good stewards of the land and good neighbors, and that we are committed and passionate about our industry and what we do. We continued learning techniques for focusing on key messages, and how to stay focused on the message we are trying to convey by being concise.

Janet and Jolane showed us ways to take control of the interview by transitioning our answers –– or bridging –– to a related point that we want to get across. This proved to be very hard task for us. During our interviews it was very easy to be completely focused on trying to defend or explain what we do in response to the question asked. Before we knew it, we were digging ourselves into a hole. We were given examples of “headlining” in which you make the message you want remembered in your opening and closing statements. We also discussed what to wear in an interview, and body language and how important it is to make eye contact with the person doing the interview.

Paul Mendes is under the lights for his media training

After a few last minute tips for a successful interview, it was now time for us to break into two groups and be individually interviewed by Janet or Jolane. We were each given a scenario for our interview, and then each one of us took our turns under the lights and camera as the tape rolled. We all were very nervous as we took our turns, and we felt like we were in an interrogation. We realized how hard it is to stay focused on our messages and how easy it is to fall prey to reporters traps and lures during questioning. The best part of the session was going over our interviews with the group, critiquing and getting feed back from everyone on how we could have answered the question in a more positive manner, and how to bridge and take control of the interview to get back to the key message points we wanted to convey.

After everyone felt ripped to shreds from this grueling interview, we broke for lunch. After lunch we talked about crisis scenarios. During a crisis it is important to stay connected to the media; timing is everything, and the public and consumers want to know that we care and what we are doing to fix the problem. They said our agenda during a crisis situation is to represent the best interests of the dairy industry, and consider the best interests of the consumer using honesty and truth while focusing on the positive aspects of the story. It is important that we show we genuinely care about the people because our livelihood depends on the consumer who is buying our product. If they do not trust us, they will not want our product. It was stressed that during a crisis we need to put a face on the message using dairy producers, representatives, and experts. Above all, it is important to do the right thing and take responsibility, and to connect to the consumer through emotion, passion, and commitment to the dairy industry.

We then broke into our groups and each group was given a crisis situation. We discussed our options and what we wanted our key message points to be for the interview before sacrificing one person to be interviewed on camera. A couple brave classmates volunteered as we all watched, and afterwards everyone reviewed and critiqued and gave advice.

The rest of us thought we were off the hook from further interrogation by Janet and Jolane, but then they said there was time for another set of interviews! I must say that we walked out of that room feeling totally battered, but it was an awesome experience. It was very eye-opening to see how your words can be turned around and used in ways that you had not expected, and how easy it is to fall for the interviewers’ trick questions and traps.

Media training was a great hands-on learning experience that really made us think about how we can more effectively communicate a positive image for the dairy industry, whether it is to the media, the public, a neighbor, or another parent at school. I can definitely say that the information we gained today will be invaluable in all of our future endeavors! I highly recommend this part of the training for future programs, and it would be great to include a “professional” interview between Janet and Jolane or Michael Marsh, so the group can see how to smoothly transition into your message points and how to block and bridge, to take control of the interview in a confident and concise manner.

Dairy Leader Devin Gioletti experiences first-hand effective interview techniques.