Working with the Press

Working with the Press

This training is designed to build skills and capacity to use the mass media (newspapers, TV, etc.) to get your message out to the public. The skills focus on any contact with the press or mass media, for example: interviews by a reporter at an event, holding a press conference, or appearing live on a morning radio broadcast.  All of these contacts provide the youth advocate with an opportunity to have their message reach a much larger audience. The youth will either be ready to take full advantage of that opportunity or the opportunity will be gone. The youth advocate (and adults as well) will always do a better job in these situations if they have practiced the skills and mentally prepared ahead of time for the media contact.

Key Points:

• Let the media know that you are working on something. They can’t cover what they don’t know about.
• Know your speaking points and sound bites.
• Be familiar with common types of questions and practice answering them.
• Try to anticipate specific questions that a reporter might ask and practice answering them.
• Know the arguments likely to be made against your position and prepare to address those arguments.
• Prepare supporting material like visuals or samples to help illustrate your points or prove your claims. If you are making a case to a reporter that alcohol drinks with caffeine in them look like the non-alcohol caffeine drinks preferred by teens, then have a sample of each type of can at the interview.

The training typically consists of a base classroom presentation covering the core principals followed by break out groups applying those techniques in simulated situations.  The focus of the training is on the skills needed to be interviewed, answer questions, deliver a press conference, and related activities.

To request a presentation of Working with the Press by Dover Youth to Youth go to How to Schedule Us in the Resources section of this site.