Is it Spin, or is it Media Mastery?

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Is it Spin, or is it Media Mastery?

by Alan Stevens & Jeremy Nicholas
(c) Alan Stevens. All Rights Reserved.

No-one likes a spin doctor, but everyone admires a good
communicator. Is there a difference? Maybe it depends on
your point of view. Politicians of all persuasions try to
ensure that their audiences, and particularly their
supporters, know what they stand for.

So how do politicians ensure that they really do deliver a
clear message, and what can we learn from them? Like him or
loathe him, George Galloway MP demonstrates communication
skills of the highest order. His advice for interviews?
“Know exactly what you want to get across in the interview,
and don’t be diverted or put off in any way by the questions
that you are asked. In a very real sense, it doesn’t really
matter what the question is. You have a few moments on the
media, and you want to make the most of that opportunity, to
get across the message you want to deliver. Now, if you can
make it fit the question, it is much better, since the
message will be better received and understood, but don’t be
sidetracked by an interviewer trying to take you down a
siding you don’t want to go down, because then you will lose
the opportunity of getting across your unique and important
message.”

Jo Swinson, the UK’s youngest MP, adds “When doing an
interview, it is important to control your nerves. I always
take a deep breath and smile, even on radio. When I appear
on ‘Any Questions’, I have one-page briefing sheet about the
issues, and at the top it says in big letters ‘Slow down and
smile’, since I do have a tendency to speak rather quickly.
You also need to be authentic. If it’s something that you
aren’t passionate about, or don’t even care about, are you
the right person to do a media interview? Particularly in
politics, but also in business too, if you are passionate
about something, people will engage with you and relate to
what you say”

So much for those in the front line of politics. But what
about those in the background? Political blogger Iain Dale
says that a sense of humour comes in handy during tricky
interviews. “Often if David Cameron is asked a tough
question by John Humphries or Jeremy Paxman he dismisses it
with a laugh. The questions can get quite personal, but he
doesn’t get upset, he just giggles. Nick Clegg on the other
hand, will do the same interview and he’ll start getting
tetchy at the tough questions. At home, the listener or
viewer will see him start to lose his temper. Whereas
Cameron doesn’t let himself get riled.”

So it’s all down to technique. Whether you laugh it off,
slow down and smile, or use the question as a prompt to
deliver your message, the important thing is to know what
you are doing. Very few of us are natural communicators, but
learning a few simple strategies can make us sound like one.

~~~

There’s plenty more advice from the other MediaMasters in
the book too (ISBN 1-905430-61-2), which is available from
Amazon, or the authors’ websites at www.mediacoach.co.uk or
www.jeremynicholas.co.uk.

~~~

MediaMasters features insider secrets from: Terry Wogan,
Phill Jupitus, Michael Parkinson, Uri Geller, Brian Clough,
Will Carling, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Gered Mankowitz,
Neil Mullarkey, Rebecca Adlington, Michael Aspel,Dee
Caffari, George Galloway and Hugh Pym. Get it at…
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1905430612
(INT) http://www.amazon.com/dp/1905430612/ref=nosim

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