220201 ALR PR Workshop, “Handling Hostile Media Interviews” at Bob Roberts Global Faith Forum

February 1, 2022 Bob Roberts Global Faith Forum

These tips will not only help you in conducting interviews but also in engaging with anti-Christian activists, hostile social media users and angry fundamentalists.

In summary, NEVER answer a direct question from a media person without prior arrangements and approval. You risk being quoted by the media, and you never know how they will use the information. These days, you are also as likely to get an inquiry from a reporter via email or direct messaging. Simply forward these requests without responding, as anything they receive from you in print they will consider usable material, including your name as a source, without necessarily asking permission to do so.

NEWS

· “Editors, reporters and producers decide what is newsworthy based on what they believe interests or influences their audiences.”

· Unfortunately, by and large they no longer report the news, but operate out of narrative

Criteria for Newsworthiness:

§ New, innovative or unusual

§ Directly important to great numbers of people

§ Has Local impact or interest

§ Involves conflict, confrontation or mistakes

§ Appears futuristic, mysterious or dramatic

§ Relates to famous or infamous people

For Bob, Magid and others speaking to the press:

· We want to help you say what you want to say, rather than what a reporter may be setting you up to say.

Look at reporters or interviewers as conduits to their audiences, and how to win the battle of the mind for the audiences by:

§ Establishing your position

§ Projecting your message

§ Creating “mental Velcro” (easily remembered points reinforced through illustrations, analogies and human interest stories)

Mike Shaeffer, former religion editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, put it this way:

“The issue is not so much how we communicate about religion as reporters but how religious organizations communicate with the press. That is where progress is needed. The churches need to get used to the idea that we will cover them as news when we can and begin to be much more sophisticated in their understanding of the role and function of the press.”

As professional religious communicators, thatis our challenge.

Michael Maus of Minnesota Public Radio said:

“The media have become our public square and will continue to set the agenda for public discourse. If individuals or organizations want to be a part of that dialogue they need to take a position – offensive or defensive – in ways that will enable the gatekeepers to understand and communicate the essence of who they are, what they represent and have to offer.”

· According to an RNS-Lilly study: “Religious stories which DO get covered are those which satisfy hard news criteria – and there are more of those all the time.”

· Billy Graham has said he doesn’t believe that the success of his work depends on, or is the result of, publicity. However, he is convinced that God has used the press in his work, and that it has been one of the most effective factors in sustaining public interest in his ministry through the years.

· For Mr. Graham and the BGEA (and other clients we serve), an ongoing media presence is an integral part of their ministry. It is not an adjunct or ancillary “add on” that is nice to do, but an essential part of their outreach, which not only extends Mr. Graham’s influence, but also increases the impact of his organization.

· With so much negative news in the world today, many are asking, “Where is the good news?”

· Several years ago Mr. Graham told a group of foreign correspondents, “We are both in the news business --You seek to give people the ‘hard news’, the facts about what is happening in the world around us. I seek to give them “Good news” about what can happen inside, in the heart, when they turn to God.”

· You can’t take it for granted that your ministry is understood or appreciated by everyone in your community.

· There is an old PR adage – “It’s not that people don’t know so much, but that they know so much that ain’t so.

Learn The Golden Rules of Media Relations

1) Credibility

Always tell the truth. You don’t have to tell all you know, but what you do tell a reporter

should be truthful.

2) Accessibility

Return reporters’ calls and help them meet their deadlines.

3) Cooperation

If you can assist reporters or if the information they are seeking is public, provide it to them; then they will see you as a resource.