Our London media training courses aim to make your spokesperson an accomplished and confident performer – one that broadcasters will want to invite back. We cover all types of media training, for television, radio and print.
Such is the competition to get on-air, it is unusual these days for a spokesperson to undertake media interviews without being trained first. Journalists, in broadcast and print, expect spokespeople to provide a polished performance.
Media training is an opportunity to try and key messages and make any mistakes within the comfort of a private studio, rather than publicly on-air or in print.
Our media and PR training courses are tailor made for each delegate, to suit their experience and expectations. We train people individually and in small groups. The training is largely practical, but presented on a foundation of theory. Our trainers are all experienced in journalism and PR.
We offer face-to-face and Zoom media and PR training. We can facilitate in person training in a broadcast studio or at a location that suits you, such as an office.
“Many thanks for another fantastic media training session, excellent as ever and the group really enjoyed it but more importantly thanks for the insights you gave our senior international resi team. They’re a hard audience to win over and your advice on key messaging and dealing with persistent and probing questions on difficult issues like […]
Media Training Services
THE TYPES OF MEDIA TRAINING COURSES WE OFFER
Our media training courses are very practical with plenty of interviews followed by playback and analysis. We offer different learning modules depending on the experience of those being trained. It is important to establish who requires the training. The CEO and C-suite or the team who may have to respond to media enquires? Our recommendation is to not to have mixed groups of seniority as this can be awkward if the junior member outshines the CEO.
We also need to know what has initiated the training in the first place. Is it to support you with a specific campaign or event? to have a roster of media trained spokespeople or to prepare for a potential media crisis. The training can take place anywhere and doesn’t have to be studio based.
We can also come to your offices using our portable radio and TV studio to facilitate face to face training on location. In addition, we offer online media training typically via Zoom which can be useful for a CEO or management team who are preparing for a specific interview and are short of time.
Media training courses work best in small groups, and we advise limiting the number of people to a maximum of eight divided up into two half day sessions of four delegates. Our goal is to give all delegates the tools to be confident and competent to conduct radio and TV
interviews.
The scenarios we use depend on what you would like to cover with your spokespeople. We’d ask if you anticipate placing your spokespeople on a specific radio or TV outlet, what are they key messages and who do you want to reach. If there is a specific crisis you anticipate your spokespeople having to comment on we would support you in ensuring they are able to deflect challenging questions successfully.
Our media and PR training ensures that you are prepared for a range of interviews including a pre-recorded soundbite for news on radio or TV.
A longer LIVE radio or TV interview with a presenter in a studio, a panel interview and a down-the- line where the interviewer and interviewee are in different studios. If required we can also replicate ‘ door stepping’ ideal for advanced training for the executive management team.
The practise areas include perfecting a sound bite, nailing your key messages and ensuring your body language doesn’t belie what you’re really thinking about being on air. Finally we’ll guide you through broadcast etiquette and ensure you don’t fall into the tricks and traps broadcast journalists like to set for you during an interview.
Find out more about our training courses
THE BENEFITS OF HAVING GOOD MEDIA TRAINING
Broadcast journalists expect highly polished and proficient spokespeople – and ideally any
spokespeople who appear on radio or television will be invited back on air, again and again. There
is an expectation that a guest who is offered as a spokesperson, particularly if they are C-suite level
or a brand ambassador, has been media trained and they stand out for all the wrong reasons if they
haven’t.
There are many benefits to having media training and PR training and it helps you to:
- Understand and deliver the types of stories broadcast journalists want to hear
- Identify and deliver your key messages into editable sound bites
- Present yourself to best effect for the camera
- Prepare for specific interviews – live and pre-recorded
- Read and adapt your body language
- Turn a negative story into positive messaging
- Identify current and future spokespeople.
WHERE MEDIA TRAINING COMES IN HANDY - USE CASES
If you have never been live on-air, it can be intimidating. Media training is important and useful and comes down to knowing what to say and how to say it. Broadcast media training can give you the confidence, knowledge and on-camera skills to navigate your way through a radio or TV interview.
It’s exciting to be on radio or TV and training doesn’t always need to be commissioned for a crisis or a negative story. It is more typically for something positive like promoting a news event, telling an internal story or to publicise a new product or service. Training courses can be helpful in getting your message out to a broad audience.
It’s generally about building confidence – sometimes the thought of the ‘killer question’ is more difficult than the reality and you need the tools to be able to think on your feet. These include the ABC technique – more on that if you book in for training! But it will help you avoid saying the wrong thing and publicly making a gaffe.
We guide you on how to communicate key messages, steer the conversation in the direction you want it to go — and train you how to get it back on track if it goes off piste.
Preparing ahead of the interview is crucial and we can coach you through mock interviews with PR training and illustrate the type of questions that might come up during a live on-air chat. Framing
your responses and illustrating your answer with relevant anecdotes is important to keep the audience engaged.
Having talking points you’re comfortable with and potential interview questions is also helpful and will ensure you’re ready to face the media. Training will provide you with suggestions on how to answer questions, what facial expressions to avoid, tricks and traps and what not to say. Preparation is the key to success. ‘Bad PR’ from a broadcast interview occurs when spokespeople go on the defensive and resort to ‘no comment’ this is to be avoided at all costs.
AREAS WE COVER
Our media training service is broad and bespoke tailored to your specific requirements. More typically we prepare speakers for TV, radio, Zoom and Skype broadcast news and lifestyle interviews. We train spokespeople who are nervous or have had a challenging experience on air and want to overcome this. Our London media training courses will offer you:
- Detailed preparation with bespoke scenarios
- Realistic and individually tailored questions for radio and TV interviews
- Theory including advice on what to wear.
- Individual playback and written feedback
- Videos and audio files of all interviews conducted
In addition, we have courses to support clients with public speaking and presentation coaching.
LONDON STUDIOS
A studio setting is always the most realistic scenario for any delegate. We have several partner Central London studios depending on client requirements and budget. These are particularly useful when clients require media training for an urgent upcoming TV interview and want to accurately mirror a TV studio setting whether for a news interview or a lifestyle show. The London studios include HD cameras, news studio set up, or sofa layout, broadcast lighting rig and chroma key green screen if required.
A FLEXIBLE APPROACH
Often the most difficult part of training is getting time in spokespeople’s diaries at the same time and there is a reluctance to go off site. This is where our flexible training approach works well. We bring the TV and radio studio to your premises.
This works very well when you need to train your whole team on a specific scenario or prepare for a potential media crisis.
We bring our cameras, lights and technical equipment and deliver our training in your premises.
Our broadcast technician will arrive with a flight case full of equipment to create a portable radio studio. This includes microphones and a small sound desk, so that we can accommodate two ( or even three) delegates. We just need a desk or table on which to place them. We also make the training as realistic as possible with a free-standing acoustic shield to ensure perfect sound. Our sessions are 3-4 hours long and we can comfortably train 3-4 spokespeople.
Our portable TV studio includes lights, cameras and play back facility. We also provide an earpiece and ensure that we can replicate ‘down the line’ TV interviews where you are remote from the person asking the questions. These are the most difficult to master.
In addition we ensure that we provide detailed preparation with bespoke scenarios and questions, theory to give an over view of the broadcast industry with tips on presentation and performance and of course plenty of practice interviews depending on your level of experience.
ONLINE MEDIA TRAINING COURSES
Remote media training classes are a cost effective and time efficient way of training spokespeople and just because it is at your laptop doesn’t mean it can’t be high quality and bespoke. Remote media training courses are typically 25% cheaper than face-to-face or studio-based training but still offer a technician and broadcast media trainer. It was borne out of necessity during Covid but now is a very workable option allowing for a fully interactive session with recording, playback and analysis of interviews.
Our online media training courses, as with face-to-face sessions, is for a maximum of 3-4 people at a time and since attention spans are shorter online, we recommend a two-to-three-hour session with breaks in the middle.
There are many advantages to remote training including shorter sessions which is beneficial to busy senior executives and where you are based ceases to be an issue.
WHY CHOOSE SHOUT! FOR MEDIA TRAINING
Shout! Communications has been delivering bespoke media training services to C-Suite delegates, brands, charities and business owners for 20 years. Our team of media trainers are all former broadcast journalists at national level including the BBC Business Unit, ITV, GMB and Sky News. We’re specialists in media relations as well as training, which means we live and breathe broadcast PR, placing our clients on air every day.
So, if you are looking for an introduction to media training and being competent on air or honing your skills and preparing for a tough interview, we are positive we can provide the right classes for you.
Training allows you to take control during broadcast media interviews, feel comfortable and confident to appear on mic and camera and to communicate key messages consistent with the company’s brand.
Find out more about our courses