The Media Relations Training Guide
The Media Relations Made Easy Training Guide is full of useful
resources to help you in conducting your next media relations training
(and your next and your next). That training guide, which you'll receive
on a USB drive, contains more
than 200 pages of information and seven complete teaching
modules, as well as supporting materials, on these
topics:
- Media — Why Bother
Working with the news media may
seem like a lose-lose situation for many university faculty and staff,
as well as others in your organization. Not only do reporters sometimes
get it wrong, your colleagues often think it could cost them their jobs.
"Media-Why Bother" gives you what you need to position working with news
media as something that could benefit their institution, their area of
expertise and their careers.
- When Media Call
Calls from the media can be
scary times and golden opportunities alike for land-grant professionals
on campus or in the field – as well as those in any organization. This
module looks at who reporters are and what they want when they call. It
shows how to respond to their calls, prepare for interviews, get your
message through them to your target audience and avoid potential train
wrecks along the way.
- Get to Know the Media
This session
shows your staff how to build lasting relationships with reporters that
can result in ongoing coverage of projects and research. It explains
what reporters look for in news and how to best meet their
needs.
- Writing News Releases and Columns
This
module is primarily for field staff who often have the opportunity to
write news releases and/or columns for small-market media. It shows when
and how to write news releases, the differences between news articles
and columns and the key components of columns that attract loyal
readers.
- Lights,
Camera, Action
This section
outlines ways to communicate more effectively on TV and radio. On
television, how you look, the setting and your delivery send messages as
well as those delivered in your words. This presentation teaches
participants how to become more comfortable and effective during
broadcast interviews. It offers advice on what to wear, tips for
illustrating the story and basic interview strategies. It also features
information on how to set up a broadcaster-friendly news conference and
discusses how to craft a useable sound bite. It includes instructions
for setting up on-camera practice interviews for participants followed
by a review and critique, so trainees can evaluate their success at
getting their messages across.
- Keeping Crises Contained
A
crisis is what a controversy looks like when it's yours. Keeping crises
contained is an advanced skill that takes prudence, planning and
practice. This portion of the manual will help you teach others and your
upper administration how to deal with tough topics and tough times. It
also will contain handy tips they need to know to keep things
positive.
- How to Confidently Handle Controversial
Issues
If there's controversy, then there's likely news.
Knowing how to address controversial issues in the media will give your
faculty and staff confidence to broach tricky subjects with reporters.
This module gives you a variety of resources, and, of course, a complete
teaching module to help them along that way.
All modules
come with teaching outlines, suggestions for conducting training
sessions and complete PowerPoint presentations (provided to you
on the USB drive and including supporting notes to help you with the presentations). There also are fact sheets and other supporting material you can
print out, duplicate
and give to participants and details on activities you can incorporate
into your training sessions to drive your messages home.
Better yet, each module in the training guide can be used for a
training session on that topic alone, or, of course, you can combine them
to present more extensive sessions.
The Media Relations Made Easy Planning Team
"The ROCK Group"
The group responsible for the original Media Relations Made Easy workshop and bulk of the training guide are known affectionately as "The ROCK Group" because the original idea for the first workshop offered in New Orleans during 2003 was conceived by members of the group while they sat on a large rock on the Ryerson University campus during the ACE international meeting in Toronto in 2001. They came from a variety of different backgrounds and represent literally hundreds of years of experience in the field. Since that time, they've also been joined by a variety of others who have helped to review and update the material, as well as make plans for the Media Relations Made Easy workshop in Atlanta during 2008.
Dr. Linda Benedict
 |
Dr. Linda Benedict was a newspaper reporter just
long enough to win a feature writing award. Since then, she's spent most
of her career as a writer and editor for university extension and research
and is now associate director of LSU AgCenter Communications. She's
also a former ACE president and winner of numerous ACE awards. Among other
contributions to the workshop, she teamed with Chris Sigurdson of Purdue
in presenting information about crisis communication and in preparing the
media relations training guide section on "Keeping Crises
Contained." |
Beth Forbes
 |
Beth
Forbes is ag news coordinator for Purdue University and a former
broadcast journalist. Along with Faith Peppers, she shared her expertise
on handling controversial issues in the media
relations training guide. Forbes also served as program chair for the
original workshop and as coordinator for the Atlanta workshop. |
Frankie Gould
 |
Frankie Gould is director of communications and public relations for the LSU AgCenter. She's also served in a variety of ACE leadership positions and is sought after for her expertise and advice in designing publications, Web sites, communications campaigns and other efforts in Louisiana and across the country. She played a key role in producing the original media relations training guide, as well as a variety of other tasks involved in planning and promoting the New Orleans workshop. |
Tom Jiriik
 |
Tom Jirik is communications coordinator for the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, but he formerly served as an information specialist at North Dakota State University and was a regional director for ACE. He teamed with Dan Rahn to prepare the media relations training guide section on writing news articles and columns. |
Pam Kan-Rice
 |
Pam Kan-Rice is a science writer and assistant director of news and information outreach for the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Before taking that media relations post, Kan-Rice was managing editor of the division's research journal and served as managing editor of agricultural trade publications before joining UC. She served on the team developing material about special considerations for TV interviews and was in charge of content review and updates of the guide for the Atlanta workshop. |
Terry Meisenbach
Terry Meisenbach is the communications and marketing leader for the eXtension initiative. He previously served as communications director for the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which helped to fund production of the training notebooks and videos that were provided as part of the original Media Relations Made Easy workshop. Meisenbach also was involved in the planning groups for both workshops.
Tom Merrill
 |
Tom Merrill is a writer and editor for the LSU
AgCenter. His major
contribution to the original workshop was serving as coordinator of the Web site,
accommodations and registration. He also coordinated final production and
distribution of the original training guide and worked with the team
planning the Atlanta workshop. |
Vicki Miller
 |
Vicki Miller is research communications coordinator for the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Vicki is a veteran newspaper and wire service reporter and editor who
specialized in agriculture, natural resources and rural affairs reporting.
Along with helping prepare two of the training guide Power Point
presentations and sections, Miller served with Dan Rahn as editor for the
presentations. |
Faith Peppers
 |
Faith Peppers is a news editor and team
leader of public affairs for the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. A former newspaper reporter,
public information officer and marketing specialist, she is the ACE
Southern Region director and was the winner of
the 2002 ACE Award of Excellence in Media Relations and the 2000 winner of
the ACE Pioneer Award for the Southern Region. She has won numerous
regional and national awards for writing, editing and marketing and is an
often-requested speaker on media and public affairs topics. In addition,
she teamed with Beth Forbes in preparing the media relations training
guide section. She is the site coordinator and is recruiting many of the
speakers for the Atlanta wokshop. |
Dan Rahn
 |
Dan Rahn was the senior news editor in the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
until his retirement late in 2007.
Winner of ACE Awards of Excellence in media relations and writing, he is a
highly regarded writer, editor and teacher. Rahn helped prepare two of the
training guide sections and served with Vicki Miller as editor for the
presentations. |
Chris Sigurdson
 |
Chris
Sigurdson is a former television reporter,
video producer, news photographer, academic middle manager and news writer
who, because he has a short attention span, likes controversy and crisis.
He has been called a fearmonger and spin doctor and liked it. Sigurdson,
who is head of the Agricultural Communications Department in the Purdue School of Agriculture,
teamed with Linda Benedict on the media relations training guide section
concerning "Keeping Crises Contained." |
Bobby Soileau
 |
Bobby Soileau is associate
director of the LSU AgCenter's Agricultural Leadership Development
Program. Prior to that, he was a video producer in LSU AgCenter
Communications and earlier served as a television producer,
photographer and editor of commercials and long-format videos at WBRZ-TV,
the ABC affiliate, in Baton Rouge. Soileau edited and produced the
national media panel video for the first workshop and worked with others
on the Lights, Camera, Action section of the training material. |
Suzanne
Steel
 |
Suzanne Steel is marketing director for Ohio State's College of Food,
Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and formerly oversaw the college's news and media
relations unit. In her previous life, she wrote and edited for The
Columbus Dispatch, Farm Journal and Pennsylvania Farmer magazines. Along
with her presentation on how to convince faculty and administrators of
the importance of media relations, she coordinated marketing of the
Hotlanta conference and served as overall coordinator for the New
Orleans workshop and materials in 2003. |
Additional Thanks
Thanks also to those who helped with reviewing the
original training guides and helping with updates for the 2008 workshop
— Martha Filipic of Ohio State
University, Susan McGinley of the University of Arizona, Elizabeth Fortune of the University of Arkansas and Edith
Chenault of Texas A&M University.
And special thanks to Elma Sue McCallum of the LSU AgCenter, Janet Rodekohr, retired extension editor
from the University of Georgia, Elinor Ruark of the University of
Georgia and Katie Smith of Auburn for their expert assistance with
production of some of the conference materials.
top
