A look inside Keeping the Wolves at Bay (Media Training)

Today I'd like to share with you an excerpt from Keeping the Wolves at Bay  Media Training. Enjoy!

WHAT DO I MEAN BY ‘MEDIA’?


Excerpt from Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training

By Jonathan Bernstein

Media relations, for crisis communications or traditional purposes, used to be so simple. There were three basic types of media – print, radio and TV. Each had reporters, usually people with journalism training. Deadlines were typically within what most would consider ‘normal waking hours.’

{nostalgic sigh}

Now ‘media’ doesn’t just mean traditional media, as above, but also “social media” that takes many different forms, including blogs, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and FriendFeed. All of them featuring information – sometimes about you and/or your organization – on a 24/7 news cycle.

Additionally, the lines between print and broadcast media have completely blurred. First, all of them have websites, but on the LA Times website, for example, you’ll find video. On Fox News’ website, you’ll find print. All media sites archive their stories, sometimes for many years, so a single piece of bad news can haunt you for a long, long time. The ‘blogosphere’ can act as a repeater, and distorter, of traditional media coverage, and there’s been more than one traditional media outlet that used a blog as a source.

The demand for news is so high, and traditional media’s budget so low, that fact-checking has become a much lower priority than simply cranking out headlines. On social media, fact-checking is virtually non-existent. And yet clever social media writers and broadcasters can attract a larger following than traditional media. One relatively recent example is the hilarious and instructive ‘United Breaks Guitars’YouTube video.

To the chagrin of many naïve organizational leaders, ‘reporters’ also exists amongst their staff and visitors. In fact, YOU are a reporter. I am a reporter. Almost all of us routinely carry small devices that used to be seen only in James Bond movies, capable of recording sound, photos and video. Mine is called a Blackberry. Such devices have been used by millions of people to record news “as it happens” and transmit it immediately to favored traditional media outlets, to blogs and/or to YouTube. But also, they may well record embarrassing moments and, ‘things you wish you’d never said.’ They can also take photos of confidential material for corporate espionage or disgruntled employee revenge. The negative uses are as varied as the creativity of angry people, none of whom need much technical expertise to do you a lot of harm.

This manual focuses primarily on how to handle traditional media interviews. It will also help you learn to respond more effectively to social media negativity – and how to use social media to your advantage for crisis prevention and crisis response, which is critical to crisis management in the 21st Century, as is total awareness of ‘new media’ in all its forms.

For some related information,look at two articles you’ll find at my website:

· The I-Reporter, Born of the Web

· The Role of Search Engine Optimization in Crisis Management


[Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training is available in hard copy and PDF formats at

The Crisis Manager Bookstore and in hard copy and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.]

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We invite you to join us on Jonathan Bernstein’s virtual tour this summer – for much more information about the tour, the author and the book, visit - http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/04/28/keeping-wolves-bay-tour/ .