Switch on 24-hour news today and you’ll probably have a whole host of healthcare specialists giving interviews at various times during the day. The global pandemic has meant that, for many members of the public, getting the right information at the right time has become critical for safety.
For anyone working in the healthcare sector, irrespective of the Covid crisis, undertaking crisis media training is a critical skill to develop. It gives individuals the confidence to prepare and undertake interviews, learn how to get key points across clearly and cope with the pressure and challenges of appearing on different media.
What Does Crisis Media Training Offer?
- It allows individuals, including CEOs and senior spokespersons to manage a wide range of media engagement including print, radio and television as well as social media.
- It gives you the tools to predict potential interview questions and get key talking points across as clearly as possible.
There is a wide range of people in the healthcare sector who may benefit from crisis media training including physicians and researchers, CEOs and administrators and specialist subject matter experts including nurses and midwives.
The Key to Crisis Media Management
Crisis management is a different proposition such as a media interview say, for example, to promote a new treatment or comment on a recent piece of medical research. Crisis management, for a start, means that emotions and opinions tend to be more highly charged and emotional, and things are largely time critical.
It’s very important to be aware of the audience that you are talking to. For example, during the Covid crisis, most of the talking points have been directed at providing information for the general public and giving them the best advice to make decisions that work for them and their families.
With any healthcare crisis, the focus should not be on damage control but on how the concerns of the audience can be addressed. For this to work well, you require clarity so that there is no ambiguity for the listener, all of which requires clear messaging, planning what you are going to say about specific issues.
Media Training Specialists
In any interview, whether it’s live on TV or radio or an interview conducted over the phone with a journalist, it’s important to stay in control. There are likely to be difficult questions to answer and some may be unexpected.
Those who are tasked with media appearances also need to appear confident and competent and that only comes from knowing your subject area well and having a full grasp of the situation.
The choice of spokesperson is again important. It needs to be someone with sufficient seniority who is respected in their field. Putting together a crisis management team and developing a plan as soon as a problem arises ensures that everyone is prepared and confident that they can carry out media appearances as and when needed.
Crisis media management remains a key area of engagement for many organisations and businesses in modern times and understanding how to put together a plan and cover all the bases is critical. For the healthcare sector in particular problems can arise at a moment’s notice and it’s important to have staff on board who are properly trained and confident enough to appear for interviews with little or no warning.
Hawkeye Media are the experts in dealing with the media and can create a bespoke course for your specific needs, either in person or online.