Crawling Out Of The Communication Cave

Liam Creagh is the managing director of Red Box Media Productions in Belfast. His company produces television programmes and features as well as corporate videos. Red Box also has a public relations role and is Northern Ireland's biggest provider of media training. Liam has been a newspaper reporter, television reporter and producer for broadcasters locally and nationally. He discusses the importance of communication with regard to modern media training.

We at Red Box Media Productions Limited specialise in news, current affairs and documentary style programmes.
As a journalist now running a media company, I have had a lifetime of reporting news and one thing that always struck me was that most interviewees – politicians excluded – felt out of their comfort zone when placed in front of the camera to answer questions. Thus much of the meaning of what they have to say is lost in a porridge of nerves.
When this happens, everyone is the loser. The media becomes the know-all and the playground bully wrapped into one and the interviewee feels bullied and belittled.
Words may be exchanged but is information imparted?
So many times I have heard people say that they weren't asked the right questions and that they were nervous of standing in front of all the technology, feeling like the subject of a firing squad. And that is why they didn't get their point across.
Those of us on the other side of the camera arrive back at our edit suite and we feel the interviewee didn't give the right answers to our questions, thus scuppering our chances of a beautifully-crafted piece of television and perhaps even an award!
Journalistic purists would argue that the interviews we do with anyone are true and from the heart if they are not rehearsed.
Those of us who media train individuals and organisations would argue that if we can take the fear out of the stressful situation by allowing candidates to rehearse, to see themselves played back and to think more deeply about what they actually mean to say, what the viewer or audience get is communication.
Communication has been around as long as humanity itself. Our caveman ancestor had to make his feelings known to other cavemen – and women. Even if they were just grunting, they knew what each other meant. For thousands of years communication evolved, slowly. In the past century things started to speed up massively with radio and TV. In the past twenty years there has been an explosion of information and mis-information!
In these days of cameras, satellites, broadband, social media, the smartphone and the tablet, the good communicators are getting through to their audience, while those not making the necessary preparations might as well be grunting like the caveman.
Today instead of grunts, we have soundbites. The best communicators sweat blood – or get their PR people to sweat the blood – to craft a soundbite which conveys a message in a very memorable way. Politicians are masters. Remember Baroness Thatcher's unforgettable line in 1980 in response to calls for a U Turn on her tough economic policy: "The Lady's not for turning."
How about Tony Blair's off the cuff remark at Hillsborough Castle when a peace deal in Northern Ireland was about to be finalised. He said: "This is not a time for soundbites but I feel the hand of history on my shoulder."
Business leaders know the value of good PR and know that a media opportunity – even if it is a negative story, can be turned into a free ad. You only have to listen to any time Michael O Leary appears on TV, radio or anywhere else where there might be an audience – even when there is a negative story. Never will you hear him mention the name of his company Ryanair without tagging the mantra "the low fares airline".
As people and organisations with a lesser profile catch on that the good performers are sought out by the media, media training becomes a must. All journalists have contact books. This is where we keep details of who to talk to when, for instance we need a comment on the price of gas, when there is a pollution incident, the economy, education. We have thousands of names of people we know we can depend on to step up to the plate and fill our air space or newspaper columns, and it's a two way street. We get to tell our story and they get profile for themselves or their organisation. Those who can't perform – or who aren't media trained – might as well crawl back into their 21st Century caves.

The article is available in BFV online.

(IT/JP)