If you’ve attended one of our media training courses or read our blogs you will have heard us talk about bridging before.
The technique is a cornerstone of media training and when used well can enable the interviewee to move the conversation on from a negative or unhelpful question posed by a journalist.
Once you are familiar with the technique you will recognise it in most media interviews.
Sometimes it is used very effectively and others it is done very badly.
Take the recent Channel 4 News (3min 20secs) item which featured Dover MP Charlie Elphicke.
Mr Elphicke was invited into the studio to discuss the emotive subject of unaccompanied child refugees in Calais, alongside actress Juliet Stevenson.
Presenter Cathy Newman said it was ‘truly shocking’ that 18 children had gone missing from The Jungle.
He said: “It is a real concern, isn’t it? But I am really proud of the fact Amber Rudd (Home Secretary) sat down with Bernard Cazeneuve (French Minister of the Interior), and talked about speeding up the process to identify the children who need to be reunited with their families here in Britain and it is the right thing to do.”
One of our expert journalist tutors described this as ‘appalling bridging’ and it is hard to disagree.
Not only was the acknowledgement of the question too short, but it was also completely lacking in any real emotion – something clearly needed in a story of this nature.
If the bridging here was poor, a few seconds later a question about whether Mr Elphicke was ‘proud’ it had ‘taken so long to get to this position’ was completely ignored.
Mr Elphicke said: “Well, I think it is really important that France does its bit.”
Clearly he was looking to move the conversation on from that particular line of questioning, but ignoring the question altogether is not the right approach for any interviewee.
So what could he have done differently?
Well, with the first example, as we already touched upon, the initial response to the question needed some human warmth, before Mr Ephicke tried to bridge away. Now, we are not in the business of putting words in people’s mouths and it is really important spokespeople develop words and phrases that work for them. But he could have said something like:
“This is obviously a very distressing situation and one which I personally find very concerning. But it is something we are working hard to resolve. Just this week… etc”
In the second example, by not acknowledging the question Mr Elphicke looks like he is trying to dodge the issue. A really vital part of the technique is that before you bridge you provide an answer or at least acknowledge the question which has just been put to you. Ignoring it just makes you look shifty.
So, he could have said: “Clearly, it has taken longer than we would have wanted, but we are working to speed up the process…”.
And then he could have gone on to make the point he wanted to get across.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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