People: An Interview with Australian Public Relations Consultant Sarah Mathieson

In this new blog series called "People", we feature interviews with interesting personalities and professionals from around the world who are making a mark in various fields and industries. Today, we talk with Sarah Mathieson, a Public Relations Consultant based in Australia.
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Sarah Mathesison, Sydney-based PR Consultant

Sarah Mathiesen is a Public Relations Consultant with one of Australia’s leading healthcare PR agencies, VIVA! Communications, based in Sydney, New South Wales. Sarah has worked on various health campaigns involving disease states such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, influenza, HIV-associated facial lipoatrophy and osteoporosis with multi-national pharmaceutical companies such as Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Sanofi-Aventis and Allergan.

In February 2009, She played the key role on the launch of world-first research that found laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery is more cost-effective at treating the twin-epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes than conventional weight loss methods. This campaign was nominated for the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s Golden Target Awards, and placed second at the awards show held in September 2009!

Sarah’s Public Relations expertise includes developing and implementing medical and consumer news media launches, writing copy for medical and consumer websites, feature articles and promotional material and shooting and editing Video News Releases (VNRs). She has a Bachelor of Journalism from James Cook University, Townsville. Before joining the VIVA! team, Sarah worked in the Corporate Communications division of Townsville City Council. Sarah has also read news for radio station, Triple T, Townsville and has frequently had work published in local magazines and newspapers in North Queensland, Australia.
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What sparked your interest in Public Relations?
My interest in PR stems from a passion for journalism and writing. As part of my journalism degree at university, I thought it would be interesting to venture over the fence and see what was on the other side – I haven’t quite made it back over yet. I enjoy the amount of work that goes into a PR campaign as opposed to writing a single article. PR might not be as fast paced as journalism, but being able to immerse oneself in a single topic for weeks, months or even years can be very rewarding.

How popular is Pubic Relations as a career in Australia?
Public Relations has beeen around in Australia since the war, and we had one of the first PR firms in the world. It’s become difficult to gauge how popular PR is as a career in Australia because there tends to be a bit of overlap between PR, marketing and advertising. I think PR is really just beginning to find its footing in Australia as people realise the return on investment compared with advertising particularly. These are exciting times for PR professionals and I think the industry is only going to grow.

The per-hour consultant fee for PR work in Australia seems extremely high when compared to other countries. What accounts for this?
I think it’s important to note that I work in healthcare PR and am therefore representing products that have had 15-to-20 years and millions of dollars worth of research and development poured into them before they reach the market. There are a lot of restrictions that Pharmaceutical companies and their agencies must comply with, so my clients generally don’t just pay for the strategic direction and counsel that you would normally expect from a PR consultant, but also an understanding of Medicines Australia Pharmaceutical and Medical Device code and a good working knowledge of disease states. Having said that, you wouldn’t pay a lawyer peanuts to represent you in court, so why should a PR professionals charge any less to represent a personality, product or brand in the public arena?

How important is having qualifications to work as a PR professional?
Qualifications are critical to working as a PR professional. PR consultants need to be very savvy across a range of topics including developing strategic campaigns, providing counsel to clients, research, writing and speaking, events management, media handling, branding, new technologies, coordinating clients and suppliers, crises and issues management and generally be able to serve the interests of several parties all at once. A person may be able to pick some of those skills up on the job but there’s not always time to learn as you go and sometimes you need to be able to just run with whatever is thrown at you.

A lot of PR is about technical writing. How important is being a good writer?
Being a good writer is immensely important to a PR consultant. Gone are the days when PR consultants wrote a media release, an alert, maybe a speech or two and the writing bit was over. PR consultants are now expected to develop large media kits that may include background documents and key opinion leader (KOL) profiles as well as multimedia materials such as websites, DVDs, on-hold messages, Community Service Announcements, etc. Journalists are also very busy people and if they don’t have the resources to write your story it’s not going to get a run. But if a PR consultant can develop a media release or other form of copy that may be re-produced in a publication almost ver batim, the story a is far more likely to be picked up by a journalist, therefore maximising the client’s outreach.

There seems to be confusion over the meaning of Public Relations. What do you understand it to be from your experience?
Public relations is a hard thing to nail down because it can be the solution to so many different objectives.In the broadest sense, my experience with PR is that the industry is about the very public coupling of a company’s interests with their stakeholders’ interests and for the client to be seen to be acting in the best interests of the stakeholder. Building and mainataining this stakeholder relationship is a major part of the definition of public relations.

Public Relations gets a lot of flack, and its role seen in a negative way as mere spin-doctoring. How far is this true?
The way we share information has evolved dramatically, particularly in the last five-to-10 years or so. If an individual has a bad experience with a company they are now able to share that experience with hundreds or thousands of people simply by updating their facebook status, tweeting or texting the editor of their local newspaper. This means that spin-doctoring or covering up the truth is no longer a feasible option for PR consultants. Instead, PR consultants are encouraging their clients to operate honestly and transparently within the community and to leave a positive stamp on the minds of their stakeholders.

In the event that a company is seen to be doing something that is not particularly positive, the best approach for them to take now is an honest one. Most PR consultants would encourage their clients to accept responsibility for their actions, whether they are intentional or not, but also to remind the community and the media of the positive steps that the company has taken in the past and/or commits to do so in the future. I think the term ‘spin-doctoring’ is very much out-dated in most areas of PR now and that it’s great to see PR professionals actively striving to gain a positive light of their own.

You work in healthcare PR. Is this your niche? What other areas of PR are you keen in?
Healthcare PR is something that I was very fortunate to stumble into. Before I landed my current role, I hoped to work internally at a not-for-profit organisation and would still like to do so at some point in my career. However, healthcare is a fantastic area to be in that is both very challenging and very rewarding. While the main role of a healthcare PR consultant is to represent pharmaceutical companies and encourage the prescription and uptake of certain medications and medical devices, they also seek to improve disease-state awareness and gain an understanding of the conditions they work with be speaking with patients. Knowing that you are making a difference to one person’s life can be an incredible feeling.

If you were to encourage students wanting a career in PR, what would you say to them?
I would encourage anyone interested in a career in PR to undergo the relevant studies and to keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the general news media, the media that applies specifically to their area of work and also news and public debate happening within the PR and media industries. I would also warn people not to expect a glamorous lifestyle filled with launch parties and celebrities or an easy ride. PR is hard work and at times can mean very tight deadlines and long hours in order to get the job done. But nothing beats the thrill of a successful launch day and if a person is willing to put the hard work in to a career in PR, they will reap the benefits.

I taught you Public Relations at University. Did you learn anything? (laughs). What is the most valuable lesson have learned during the process and how far were you able to take this knowledge to the industry?
Studying PR at University has provided me with an excellent foundation to PR and a solid theoretical knowledge particularly in terms of developing strategic communications campaigns. There is so much that I’ve learned on the job that no classroom could possibly provide, but without that theoretical knowledge it would be hard to understand the reasons behind why PR consultants do the things they do.
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Read much more in this new series "People" at my blogs:
The Communication Workshop - http://thecommunicationexperts.blogspot.com
Talking Politics - http://humejohnson.wordpress.com

The Journalist's Creed

I BELIEVE in the profession of Journalism.

I BELIEVE that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust.

I BELIEVE that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy, and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.

I BELIEVE that a journalist should write only what he or she holds in hisor her heart to be true.

I BELIEVE that suppression of the news for any consideration other than the welfare of the society is indefensible.

I BELIEVE that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman; that bribery by one's own pocket is as much to be avoioded as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another's instructions or another's dividends.

I BELIEVE that advertising, news and editorial colums should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single stabdard of helpful truth or cleanness should prevail for all; that the supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.

I BELIEVE that the journalism which succeeds best - and best deserves sucess - fears God and honours man; is stoutly independent, unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power.

I BELIEVE that the journalism which succeeds best is constructive and tolerant but never careless; self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid; is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of privilege or the clamour of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance and, as far as law and honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so an equal chance.

I BELIEVE that the journalism which succeeds best is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international goodwill and cementing world comradeship; is a journalism of humanity, of and for today's world.

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The Journalist's Creed was written after World War 1 by Dr Walter Williams. Dr Williams was Dean of the renowned School of Journalism at the University of Missouri 1908-1935.
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See more articles at http://thecommunicationexperts.blogspot.com

The Communication Workshop is an international media and communications consultancy which offers specialist training in broadcast journalism, media relations, public speaking, crisis communication and strategic communications.

Write to us at thecommunicationworkshop@gmail.com or humejohnson@gmail.com

How to Look and Sound Good in Public: Ten Sure Ways to Success in Media Interviews

“It’s a risk to talk to the press, they are likely to report what you say”
- Hubert Humphrey

Yes, roll your eyes, frown, laugh even. You are not alone. Many people - entertainers, high-flying business executives, politicians and other public personalities - with whom I have worked over the years (and who are likely – more than anyone else- to be asked to do a media interview) - scoff at the very idea of media coaching. Generally, those who speak well and are able to make lucid arguments usually feel coaching sessions a complete waste of time, irrelevant to the advance of their careers, and bluntly put, above them. Yet, in an information age where sound bites, images and appearance takes precedence over substance, even the most ego-centric politician or business executive is realizing the importance of intense one-to-one practice sessions or group training designed to make them sound and look good in public.

World's fastest man, Jamaican Usain Bolt faces the reporters' mic

One prominent American business executive understood this reality when he is reported to have warned his employees: “if you lose money for the firm, I will be understanding, but if you lose reputation, I will be ruthless”. The reputation of an organization and/or the image of the public figure is tied up with their ability to effectively to control the nature of their presence in the media, and how they are perceived by their various publics. As soon as the celebrity sits down on a media set, microphoned and lighted for an interview or an executive stands at a podium to deliver a speech for a company event, he or she must recognise that their organisation’s or personal image is on the line. If you needed one more reason to get media coaching, here it is - Few people from the budding entrepreneur to even media practitioners (journalists, editors etc. whose job is communicating!) know how to communicate their expertise, talk persuasively about an issue or even their own careers in the media!

Jamaican entertainers (l-r) Lady Saw, Cecile, Tony Rebel.

At an event recently put on by the Townsville Press Council in Australia, I got the opportunity to see two different speakers in action. One was former opposition Leader of the Queensland State Government, Lawrence Springborg, and Editor of the local newspaper, the Townsville Bulletin. At the time, Springborg was doing the rounds of the election campaign bid to defeat current Premier, Anna Bligh. So naturally, people were happy that he had accepted to speak at the function and keen to hear what he had to say. Springborg, mind you, is a well-spoken politician and an articulate man with an amazing voice (of broadcast quality). Yet, I stood there bored stiff! He droned on in a monotonous tone, failed to connect with the audience and missed an opportunity to wow potential voters. The other speaker at the function, a man schooled in the newspaper business spent his speaking time gripping the podium, his eyes glued to his script and basically read – rather than tell (perform) his speech. I was equally bored.

A good voice is great but not sufficient. That one is able to speak well and carry on a lucid conversation does not mean that h/she will necessarily give an effective public presentation; in short, eloquence does not a good public presentation make. Hence, the need for media coaching. Former New Zealand Prime Minister sought specialist media coaching for the politicians under her watch. Two of these MPs were invited to address a media and politics class I was co-teaching in New Zealand. One carried out a media manual in her handbag while the other boasted of learning to write his own media releases. But let’s get back to the media interview and how to handle it.

The current model used by a variety of public figures is to compel reporters to submit their interview questions and then study them to the death, or, God forbid, ‘wing it’ – go into the media interview totally unprepared and rely on relative eloquence and when all else fails, charm. Bad idea! Winging it I mean; charm and the ability to articulate are necessary components for success. But just because you have been working in your field forever does not mean you can discuss it in a memorable way in a five minute media interview situation.

Jamaican athletic stars, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson

Entertainers sometimes have the hardest time with the easiest questions “How did you get started in the business”? Jamaican entertainers are famous for responding with gems such as “It’s an in-born concept you know”. Sports people also often falter at describing their performance in an athletic event, while business people will grapple with “what do you do or what does your organisation do”. And it is without question that politicians are usually so close to the action that they tend to ramble on and on in defence of their point of view, and instead of listening in attentively, we tune out. But there is hope. There is a skill in crafting key, remarkable messages and being able to redirect biting questions – and it can be learned if you admit that you could use the help. Ok, in the event that you are not ready to do actual coaching, here are a few suggestions to get you on the right track:

1.Prepare, Never Take it for Granted or Rely on Luck
It is now a truism that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Invest the time in processing the general perimeters of the interview (usually this is offered by the interviewer) and conceive in your mind how you might answer various questions. Feel free to ask a friend or colleague to pitch some questions your way, questions with bite that is. I especially love to do with if I have a job interview or oral exams – but this strategy is quite appropriate for a media interview. Tough or hostile questions are a given in a media interview. Experts agree that it is best to be prepared for these by learning to craft and rehearse lucid, honest and appropriate responses by pre-guessing probing questions rather than aggressively shun them, babble on incoherently or forced to admit that you don’t know how to answer a question you could have through preparation.

2. Never Forget Your Key Messages
Every interview has a purpose and the journalist usually has certain questions and themes that they wish to have answered or addressed. Your job is to ascertain what you think the listeners would want to hear. Craft your messages with them in mind, not just the journalist. The journalist is a mere intermediary between you and the target public. Many professionals speak directly to the reporter, become upset with the nature of the questions or the mood of the interviewer. If you can focus on delivering the key messages viz.a.viz the journalist, you would appear more effective; in short – look and sound good in public. In doubt, tape your rehearsal, replay and watch your responses, including your body language and make changes accordingly.

New to the camera and being filmed; nervous? The trick is to totally forget it’s there – focus on the question and of course, your key messages. A good suggestions which usually works to build confidence is to agree to interviews with soft press first. What I mean by soft press is programmes known for information gathering feature type events as opposed to investigative news and current affairs programmes where you are likely to be put on the spot. I also advise my clients to use normal conversations in which they are engaged to practice delivering key messages in a succinct manner.

3.When crafting messages, Abide by the 4 C’s – Conciseness, Control, Credibility, Charm
A media interview is not the space for speech-giving and the provision of contextual information. Get to the point. An interview is a conversation with a purpose. It is not your normal conversation in which you speak at will. The reporter/journalist is the one in charge: they ask the questions and you are obliged to answer them. Does this mean you sit back in your chair and play dead? No it means that you ought to respect their position in this purposive conversation, get your key messages across while answering the questions posed. In this sense, control also means that you are able to be ‘in control’ versus ‘taking control’ of the interview. You may want to begin by deploying the so-called icebreaker. Talk to your interviewer- ask them about their interests, their job, their day – in other words – create a rapport and a genuine friendliness. This energy and air will spill over into the interview and render it interesting and you are guaranteed to feel much more relaxed and confident. A sense of openness and camaraderie - along with integrity and forthrightness in responses - will increase your believability. Credibility is critical to effectiveness in the media interview.

4.Decide on Your Game Plan
I talked about preparation before the interview. Now, I wish to address what to do during the interview. What is your game plan; your line of attack. In my public relations class to undergraduates, we talk about goals, strategies, tactics, messages and target publics constantly as crucial elements of planning and implementing PR related projects. The celebrity, business executive whomsoever in a media interview situation, the requirements are the same. Before you open your mouth to represent yourself or your organisation, it is important to be clear what your objective is, what is the goal of the interview and your goal in it; strategies that you will use to get your message across, the key messages you will present and crucially to whom are you speaking: who is your target public. It is downright silly to go into a media interview without these basic tactical tools.

5.Watch your non-verbal Cues: What are you saying with your body that your mouth is not saying?
Do you notice when you are on the telephone, your tendency is to move around a lot. This makes you more relaxed and aids in being more confident and assertive during the conversation. But in an on-camera or radio interview, you are clipped with a microphone and placed to sit on a chair and your interviewer strategically positioned close to you. You can’t move; you are imprisoned in the moment. If you don’t know how to manipulate your body language, you will appear as dead as a doornail; as stiff as nails, even in a positive interview situation! This will impact your credibility. I have offered the following suggestions to clients over time:

If you are doing a phone interview, stand up. You will sound more authoritative, relaxed and credible. For on camera interviews, try to walk around and relax your body prior to going on set. Onset, try not to fidget, sit with each vertebrae of your spinal column on top of the other; in other words, sit up. And men, please do not cross your legs, especially not at the knee. It is distracting and uncouth. And LOOK ALERT.

6.Know When to Shut Up: Consider that once its Uttered, It’s on the record

Recently I heard a BBC World News reporter say on a live stand up ‘This is what Ministry officials told us ‘off the record’. I wondered for days about the ethics of that kind of revelation and concluded that the rules may have changed for ‘off the record’ remarks. The truth is they haven’t but the responsibility of the journalist cannot be relied upon. So the simple rule is: do not reveal anything that you wish to stay hidden. This goes for all appearances, not just media interviews.
Whatever irresponsible or off the cut commentary you say as a public figure will – in the world of technology– can take a long time to go away. With youtube, gaffes are broadcast endlessly and your one hiccup becomes a permanent blotch on your career.

7.Stick to Your Message
Earlier I spoke about the key messages that you must arm yourself with in a media interview. But it is equally important to stick to your message. A skilled interviewer will divert attention from the focus of the interview to concentrate on issues that you may not wish to discuss. In other words, they will cause you to go off your message. You must learn to stay on track with your message. In extreme cases, it is advisable to stop the interview. Ask for a restroom break, glass of water, whatever it takes to restore some semblance of balance to you and help you to bring the interview back to its central focus. I have seen this technique used during the re-enactment of the David Frost interviews with President Richard Nixon. Under the pressure of the interviewer’s question, the Nixon team asked for a break. They had begun to lose control of the interview and needed to correct that. This goes for especially for recorded interviews. The producers are interested only in your on camera performance so make it the best.

8. Learn how to Deflect and Bridge
This tip follows from that above. Deflection and bridging are two interview techniques which allow you to redirect any efforts to derail your key message. Bridging is essentially a transition. Here you simply answer the question directed at you, then transition to the key message you intend to communicate. Bridging phrases may include “Let me put that into perspective”; “That is an interesting point but its important to remember”, “In addition to that” and ‘That is great but you may be interested to know…”

9. Prepare byte thoughts
What I mean here are important points that you want the audience to take away from your presentation or interview. They say that people only remember a 1/3 of what they hear from a media interview or speech. Catch phrases, anecdotes and recreations they remember as they are usually wrapped up in succinct thought bytes. The trick is to plan these facts or points beforehand. Deliver these thought bytes passionately and forcefully, sometimes through repetition. ‘Buy and throw away, buy and throw away, buy and throw away” I recall from a speech I heard years ago given to the United Nations by a 12 year old Canadian child. What she did was narrow the focus of her presentation to a few thought bytes and delivered those with passion, and the effect was that the audience had no choice but to walk away thinking about those essential points. The media also loves to package thought bytes into ‘sound bytes’ for the news and so these are crucial.

10. Evaluate Your PerformanceIt is always important to evaluate your performance in order to make necessary changes and improvements. Watch back your interview if you can or have a honest friend tell you where you could make improvements. Ask colleagues if they thought the key messages were obvious. You will only perfect this skill if you undertake honest evaluations and have the confidence and intelligence to alter it where necessary.
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Dr Hume Johnson is a Communications Consultant. She teached Journalism and Communication at James Cook University, QLD, Australia. Send enquiries to thecommunicationworkshop@gmail.com

Asked to Handle PR in a Crisis?: What Practitioners Should Do

From my experience, especially within government relations and political PR, people only see the value of Public Relations when they have a crisis. At the same time, so many (untrained) Public Relations practitioners see their role as simply 'technical writers' (of press releases, articles, publicity materials etc (This is NOT PR. Those are merely tools of the Public Relations process) that they too are unaware of how to handle public relations in an emergency. Since public relations is about building and maintaing mutually benefocial relationships between and organisation and its publics on whom its sucess or failure depends (Cutlip & Centre, 2007), it is important for this relationship to be repaired when it naturally goes awry and is undermined in a crisis situation. Here are ten tips that a PR professional should so in an emergency.

1. Determine if there is need for a news and information centre. Only you can decide this. The nature of the crisis and the size of will help you to make this determination. The London bombings of July 2007 was a dramatic and extensive event and required a news outlet outfitted with telephones and other technology as well as a a place for reporters to sit and write. This news outfit will be a seperate space from where emergency workers are busy trying to bring the crisis under tecnical control. A news centre is one way of showing the public and the media that the organisation is cooperating and has a desire to be open. If the crisis does not require an information centre, then it is always advisable to have one or two direct lines where calls from the news media can be filtered.

2.Be Open with the media - I know this is hard for some organisations to understand. I give you an example. I had the opportunity of being trained in Crisis Management for the 200 Cricket World Cup (Caribbean). The training was carried out by the Public Affairs team of the Metropolitan Police (London) - same guys who so ably and professionally dealt with the Crisis Communication and Response during the London bombings. Later when I was participating in an open session, including Security Personnel from around the Caribbean, the question of the media came up. Shockingly, the crisis response of the Security Forces had the media as peripheral rather than central to effective crisis management. They did not realise that the management of information during a crisis was as equal as managing the crisis itself. The PR professional must be on hand to provide information to the media in as timely a manner as possible and in a way which secures and maintains the interests of their organisation. In this sense, the information centre requires not one but several able writers who are able to write and filter media releases, statements and update the company website etc as the information comes to hand.

3. Work with management to work out the content to be delivered to the emdia, and formulate responses to questions. Public Relations is, after all, a management function. This means it is management which will take policy decisions in the best interest of the organisation. The PR person is thus obliged to check with management to ensure that the text to be disemminated has the consensus of the management officials, and also work together with management to craft responses to questions from the media. It is here that the PR person effects his/her 'counselling' role, by ensuring that management is kept alert to the politics of media relations and responds in a way which retains the credibility of the organisation.

4. Work only with the approval of top management. This is a delicate issue,and often results in confusion and conflict as to the PR person's role. PR is a mangement function and so the facts to be given to press and the decisions to be made in a crisi belongs with top management. At the same time, top management must seek the advice of the PR counsellor to determine of their policy decisions are in line with the best interests of the organisation, and will retain favourable opinion among its publics.

5. Maintain close and constant contact with the media. They tend to know information you do not yet know. It is also important for your organisation to set the agenda. This means that you ought to be one providing the official information o the crisis and not allow space for rumours and falsehoods to become the story. The death of Pakistan's cricket coach, Bob Wolmer in Jamaica at the height of the World Cup, is one example of a situation where runours and falsehood dominated the agenda. The Jamaican government and the cricketing organisations lost control in the management of information during the crisis.

6. Know what facts you are giving out, and at what times. Each release, statement etc must not only be properly dated, but it is advisable to keep a log of when each was disemminated. In the panicked environment of a crisis, you want to be appear to be in control. This means getting your facts straight, preventing duplication of information and conflicting information. New developments will arise and you must ensure that the public is not confused.

7. Refrain from releasing names of victims before the families are notified. This is standard policing procedure but also relevant in a PR scenario. The media generally understands the nature of these things and are usually understanding and willing to wait. This display of professional courtesy and respect for the victims' families mainatins integrity for the organisation. Can you imagine hearing of a tragic death of a family member on the news first?

8. Confirm only definite information. This is information you know will not change. Accordimng to Newsome, Turk and Kruckeburg (2007, "If firefighters carry a victim from the plant in a bodybag and the reporter sees it, say only that one body has been recovered. DO NOT SAY that you 'dont know how many are dead"! They also advise not speculate about the cause of accidents, delays in shipment, layoffs etc. In short,'say no more than to confirm what is already known.

Finally, I borrow the following from the authors above. These fall under the heading 'Facts Desired but Not Necessarily Desirable to Give'.
1. Speculation about anything
2. Any delivery delays or such (Accentuate the positive as soon as you are sure)
3. How caused (Let city officials release this; chances are the story will die before report is completed).
Specific damage estimate as well as waht was destroyed. (This information might be extremely valuable to competitors).

For More, see This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations. Newsome et, al (2007).

Forthcoming in this Series: How to talk to the Media in a Crisis

All Ears?: 10 Techniques to Become an Active Listener

Photo- Two of my former colleagues at Waikato Uni (New Zealand) conversing. Jenine (l) certainly appears to be practicing active listening.

Are you one of those people who talks so much that others can't to get their point across in a conversation? Is your partner talking to you but you cant honestly say that you are really listening? Are you having a dicussion but you are not really digesting what the other person is saying because you just can't wait for your turn to speak again? I am sure you already know that this is poor conversation etiquette and a non-strategy of effective communication. Poor listening skills is at the root of many conflicts and problems within relationships and in society. If you display an unwillingness to listen and prefer only to hear yourself speak, people will eventually stop listening to YOU, quit talking to you, because - face it - it is a pain to talk to people who don't listen!

Developing proper listening skills is not only for the psychologist whose job it is to hear people out but you would be amazed how your job (no matter what that job is) and your relationships will improve once you begin to acknowledge the voices and opinions of others and giving them a chance to say their piece. For those taking seminars and participating in meetings, active listening is also a vital component of success and efefctiveness. Here are ten ways in which you can become more fully engaged in your life and work and be appreciated by everyone with whome you speak. These summary points have come from a plethora of communication texts that I have come across over time, and my own experience as a communications specialist and trainer:

1. STOP TALKING - One cannot listen while talking. The need to talk while someone else is talking is just poor manners, and no one can possibly hear the other if both are talking at once.

2. PUT THE SPEAKER AT EASE - Break the ice, make people comfortable to converse with you. Only actively listening to your point of view without judgement or impatience can accomplish this. Their language skills may not be on par with yourd but do exercise patience and allow them to feel at ease enough to speak in thir own language and manner, whatever that maybe.

3. SHOW A SPEAKER THAT YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO HIS/HER WORDS AND ACTUALLY LISTEN - This is similar to the point above. It means demonstrating to the speaker through eye contact, not doing other things while the person is speaking; not seeming disinterested etc - that you are fully engaged with what they are saying and you really want to know. This is also relevant to parents with children and nurses with the sick. Most times people merely want to be acknowledged.

4. REMOVE DISTRACTION AND FOCUS ON THE SPEAKER - People lead busy lives and with modern technology, they are talking on the go, and multitasking. It is better to postpone a conversation to a time when you can be fully committed to it than merely say 'ehmm ehhm" and you are not in fact listening. It is discourteous and does not illustrate respect for the speaker or their point of view.

5. SHOW EMPATHY FOR THE SPEAKER'S POINT OF VIEW - Listening is not the same as hearing, so unless you are deaf, we know you are hearing. But are you empathetic to the person's perspective? This is the essence of active listening, being able to fully appreciate the person's point of view without judgement even if you disagree. Empathy does not mean you feign agreement. It means you are fully engaged with the sets of values, motivations and emotions that may lead this person to this point of view. If you cannot fully appreciate where they are coming from, they will not appreciate your objection or disagreement if you have one. Active lsitening, in this sense, fosters mutual understanding.

6. BE PATIENT, ALLOW THE SPEAKER TIME WITHOUT INTERRUPTION - This is the hardest part I know. I too am guilty of interrupting. This techniques requires enormous patience and discipline. Sometimes, the person speaking is making a point and we do not want to forget so we butt in. We also get the point they ahve made but they persist to make it again as if repeating the point will have some further impact on is, so we interrupt to make our point. This leads to argumentation and debate rather than discussion. Active listening requires that you demonstrate patience and allow the speaker to complete his or her point before you continue. There are at times natural breaks in people's speech that will allow for interruption without seeing impatient or disrespectful.

7. HOLD ONE'S TEMPER, DONT LET EMOTIONS INTERFERE WITH ACTIVE LISTENING - Ok, there are sometime heated conversations and controversial issues and topics which derails our ability to actively listen. This is the point where active listening is even more crucual. Exercise patience, do not blow a gasket and do not let your emotions register on your face. Calmly listen to the point of view. I had the occasion once of watching a TV interview on TVone in New Zealand where a close friend, Editor of the Waikato Times, was a participant. I could see that the nature of the discussion had one of the panelists enraged. Yet Bryce maintain such composure I was impressed. I later asked him how did he manage to listen through all that without interruption or obvious distress. He remarked that he was seething beneath but used the time to craft his own responses and rebuttals to the points made. That is discipline and requires concerted effort to get there, but I think my point is well-made.

8. BE GENTLE WHEN ARGUING OR CRITICISING - If one is able to listen patiently and empathetically to an individual's point of view, in conversation, discussion or debate, then the need to give an angry response is less. Criticism and argumentation is inescapable in everyday living. But part of effective communication is to be able to offer criticism in a way which maintains the relationship, and to have an argument without sounding the death-knell to a friendship or professional relationship. Some people hate confrontation so they dont argue or criticise at all. This is sheer weakness and is not a resolution for the challenges we face in living and operating together. Many times, life requires us to offer our view and to engage in fierce debates. The challenge is to do so respectfully and with professionalism.

9. ASK QUESTIONS - This is the most obvious way of showing that you are listening. And please, be genuinely interested. Do not feign interest - I repeat. I often tell my journalism students that the best interviews are those when the host is genuinely interested in the story being told to them by the interviewee. Oprah is my all time favourite example. Part of her success is that genuine interest in people and their story and their lives. Same if you are on a date, listen and ask questions about people. Again, people just want to be acknowledged and to feel important. Asking questions sjows that you are not only listening but you are empathetic, engaging fully in the time and space of teh conversation and interested in the person.

10. ALWAY REMEMBER THAT ONE HAS TWO EARS AND ONLY ONE MOUTH - A wise person came up with that. I read it somewhere. This requires little explanation but suffice it to say f you have two ears and one mouth, you are naturally meant to speak less and listen more. So take on the challenge. I guarantee that your effectiveness as a communicator will reach stratospheric levels.

Interviewing the Artiste 101 – What Young Entertainment Journalists should know

Photo - Jamaican entertainers, Diana King and Lymie Murray

My Facebook colleague, Simone Harris’ recent post, Communication 101 for artiste, is a critical intervention worthy of industry attention. Indeed, the longstanding inability to locate themselves within a broader entertainment industry in which they operate; to communicate articulately about their career, themselves and, importantly, to interpret their art remains one of the biggest shortcomings of the Jamaican artiste, and a poignant challenge for the industry. However, the flip side is equally aggravating – watching/listening to so-called entertainment journalists interviewing the artiste.

I had the occasion of watching a young entertainment journalist early 2009 at the Shaggy and Friends Concert at Jamaica House conduct an appalling interview with Tony Rebel, an artiste for whom I administered publicity for the last 12 years. The young woman proceeded to ask the artiste a raft of ‘leading questions’ – all doubled and triple-barrelled- about the influence of negative lyrics on the society. Now, Tony Rebel is, by far, one of the most articulate and intelligent artistes in the industry and even he was thrown by the awkward nature of the questions. Nonetheless, he was clever enough to seek clarification and request that particular questions be rephrased (for the purpose of accurate interpretation).

As a journalist, I was disturbed and disappointed but worst was to come. While this interview was being done, I turned to a colleague and expressed the thought that the questions were too complicatedly phrased. Would you believe that the interviewer momentarily paused the interview, turned to me and angrily asked “what did you say about my question”? I kid you not. I was beyond shock – all I could utter was: ‘you are doing an interview, focus on that’.

This kind of unprofessionalism and blatant disrespect for the interview process, the interviewee not only speaks to the declining quality of journalism in Jamaica as a whole, but importantly, underscored the failure to recognise that the ‘celebrity interview’ (read as ‘artiste interview’ here) is a specialised type of interview genre which requires skill, charm and intelligence but also the ability to maintain your integrity and that of the celebrity.

Many young people entering Jamaican journalism want to interview famous people – entertainers, politicians, successful business people, athletes, film and TV stars etc. But this can be a tough test. The really big stars such as Tony Rebel who are accustomed to or like being interviewed will be absolutely charming, gracious, congenial and courteous. But many others, especially if confronted by the disastrous showing by this little known journalist in the above case, they would have been perfectly within their right to decline to continue with that dialogue.

What is an interview?
An interview is a ‘structured conversation’. It is not your usual conversation where I talk and then you talk. Rather, it is a series of questions and answers where only one party – the interviewer – is asking the questions. In this regard, an interview is only as good as the questions that are asked. It is not an arena to merely solicit responses but an avenue of challenging opinions and orthodoxies; which mean interviews can be entertaining and informative.

Before you start asking 5 critical questions often taught in journalism school – who, what, where, where and how, the most important question, from my experience is ‘why’ - why are you conducting the interview; why do you want to talk to this person; and why will this interview help the story.

When you know why you are conducting the interview, you can decide what questions to ask. It is important for journalists to ask themselves “What do I want to know” and conduct the interview accordingly
 Is it to learn the facts about a news event? = gain information
 Is it to challenge an authority figure? =investigative or adversarial
 Is it to elicit a personal response to an event = an emotional interview
 Is it because of who the person is? = celebrity interview

What is the idea of the celebrity interview?
First, if your journalistic beat is entertainment, your job is to develop friendly but professional relationships with the artistes’ public relations or management people, or, if possible, the artistes themselves. It is about being professional, not about meeting stars; it’s about the ability to see these individuals as people that you can get on-air, that they will something (interesting or controversial) that can add value to your press report or story and enliven your programme. In short, recognise that they will be a good interview.

Second, put your interviewee at ease. Break the ice, pay them a compliment (don’t suck up). This lightens the situation and makes the celebrity more open to listening to you as journalist and definitely more inclined to answer your questions. (Some media savvy celebrities are now keen to find out how much of the interview will be used etc, and use this to gauge whether to give soundbite responses or more expansive comments).

Third, if it is an especially controversial matter – an artiste is accused of rape; is involved in a court proceeding; is embroiled in a controversial situation where he/she needs to defend oneself – then assure them that they will be treated fairly, and that your intentions are sincere. This may mark the difference between you getting the interview or not, or how open the celebrity interviewee prefers to be. Can they trust you would be the question on their mind, but, in my view, the most important question is: can you as the journalist build this trust by the way you approach the interview.

Fourth, if you ask for 5 minutes of their time, do not take 15 minutes. You are there for the interview, not to make friends. Sometimes, if you are interviewing really busy celebrities such as business people, respecting their time is even more essential. Greet them, shake hands, do the interview and leave. In this sense, the celebrity ought to be treated like a press conference (staged media events designed to disseminate news) or a news item.

Fifth, Do your research. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. This does not mean prepare a list of questions and rehearse them to death. It means do sufficient research on the celebrity. Distinguish fact from fiction. Ask real questions; challenge them; ask interesting questions. I watched Queen Ifrica on TV interview programme earlier this year, and this artiste can talk and tends to be very confident and free in expressing her thoughts. As a result, she assumed absolute control of the interview, to such an extent that I forgot that two interviewees were on set! The interviewees appeared unprepared. They did not seem to have a clear sense of what they wished to ask the artiste; seemed overawed by the artiste’s presence and expressiveness. Again, research is critical to a successful interview.

* Artistes and other celebrities are also citizens. They live in the society. Don’t be afraid to ask them about topic issues on the public’s agenda. You may be surprised that they hold an opinion about the society in which they live and from which they draw inspiration.

Finally, remain calm and unruffled. The best interviewers are those who are able to maintain their composure, act with decorum, and do not become overwhelmed by the presence of the celebrity or the augustness of the celebrity interview occasion. * Just because it is an entertainment programme is no reason to ‘wing it’; scream on top of your lungs, act overly excited, or, lest I forget, dress provocatively.

Mock PSA, Australia Campaigns Against Swine Flu - Are you Protected?

Photos - Australian Kids wearing face masks to protect them from Swine Flu

At present there are 27,663 people in Australia contaminated with the H1N1 or human swine influenza virus.

95 Australians have already died from Swine flu.

People most at risk from the virus are people with lung disease, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, immunosuppression problems, drug treated asthma, pregnant women and children under 5.

The swine flu symptoms are simular to those of the seasonal flu. A sudden fever of above 38C and sudden cough accompanied by headaches, tiredness, chills, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, stomach upset, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, aching muscles, limb or joint pain.

Swine flu is spread in the same way as a seasonal flu, close contact, within a metre of a person suspected of swine flu, hands and surfaces where the germs are present.
To prevent the spread of swine flu stay home when sick, when coughing or sneezing cover your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue disposing of it immediately, and wash hands frequently.

If you believe you have swine flu contact your local doctor, ring 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84). For further, information log onto http://www.health.qld.gov.au/swineflu.

By Tenille de Brueys, Student- Advanced Public Relations
Lecturer, Dr. Hume Johnson