‘Can we see your questions in advance?’ is a phrase often heard by journalists when arranging an interview.
It is a question I often asked myself in previous roles as a comms manager on behalf of my organisation’s spokesperson.
I hated asking it and it was never successful. The best outcome was to be given a rough idea of what the first question may be about.
I can understand why the interviewee requests the questions – they are often nervous, perhaps worried about some potential questions and concerned about saying the wrong thing. And anyway, who wouldn’t want to know exactly what you are going to be asked?
But, equally, I obviously appreciate why no journalist would accept the request. Scripted, over rehearsed interviews are not going to attract more viewers or listeners
But what if you could prompt the journalist to ask the questions you want?
On our media training courses we encourage participants to take control of interviews through the bridging technique and to be forceful in getting their message across. But we also teach them a more subtle approach which we call signposting.
It’s a technique which makes it obvious to the reporter you have something interesting to say if they ask you the right question.
For example, if you finished an answer with ‘but that’s not the most important thing’ or ‘that’s not even the key thing’ the chances are the reporter will ask ‘so what is the most important thing?’. It is human nature to want to know what the ‘most important thing’ is.
Not only does it give you some control of the interview, but it also allows you to lead the journalists to your key message and tells the audience to concentrate as you are about to tell an interesting story.
It is subtle and it is something we do every day when talking to friends or family without even thinking about it. How many times have you said something like ‘you’d never guess what happened next’ or ‘I couldn’t believe what happened next’ when telling a story socially?
Of course signposting is just one of several skills which can help you to take control of an interview and really steer the conversation.
But start to subtly integrate it into your answers and you can begin to spend less effort worrying about what a journalist may ask and more time fine-tuning the messages you want to deliver.
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. Click here to find out more about our highly practical Media Skills courses.
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