The MediaCoach

Hi John,

Just when you think the world is winding down to a relaxing end of the year, politics continues to create headlines. Now that President Trump has decided to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, I have decided to recognise my back garden as the capital of the USA. I will therefore be requiring the US President to move into a tent on our lawn. We may invite him inside for Christmas dinner. Or we may not.

At least Brexit is now sorted out. Oh hang on, apparently it isn't. I'll come back to that in a minute.

Aside from all the political shenanigans, I've had a very nervous time as I upgraded my MacBook Pro to the latest operating system - High Sierra - from a years-old operating system. It took seven hours, but it worked. Phew. I advise doing updates more regularly.
And one more thing - my great friend Sierra Modro presents the Tech Happy Hour and would love some feedback from you. Check out her YouTube channel.

If you're a regular reader, you will know I'm a great music fan. My friend Lucinda Sieger is not only a singer-songwriter but also brings musicians and artists together in London at her monthly Lucie's Lounge (contact me for details). Hear her in the Media Coach Radio Show. There's also, of course, a song from Lucinda.
Go to the iTunes Archive of the MediaCoach Show
Follow me on Twitter

The MediaMaestro this week is the editor of Time Magazine, for selecting "The Silence Breakers" as their person of the year. The women who came forward to deliver their testimonies of sexual harassment have been rightly honoured on the cover of the magazine, In their own words:"We are #TheSilenceBreakers. We have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day. Together, we hold the umbrella of solidarity for the millions of people to come forward with their stories."

The MediaMug award goes to the hapless Brexit secretary, David Davis. He's found himself in the weird position of both officially denying and officially confirming the existence of reports about the impact of Brexit on different sectors of the UK economy.
On February 2nd 2017 he said "We continue to analyse the impact of our exit across the breadth of the UK economy, covering more than 50 sectors - I think it was 58 at the last count - to shape our negotiating position."
On June 25th 2017 he said "In my job I don't think out loud and I don't make guesses. Those two things. I try and make decisions. You make those based on the data. That data's being gathered, we've got 50, nearly 60 sector analyses already done."
Six weeks ago he told parliament he had impact assessments in "excruciating detail".
But this week he said "There's no systematic impact assessment I'm aware of," adding: "The usefulness of such a detailed impact assessment is near zero". I wonder if he's already drafted his resignation letter?

FIVE ELEMENTS OF A STRONG SPEECH

1) Insight. Your audience expects you to be well-informed on your topic. You need to be general enough to get your ideas across, but show that you have an insight that no-one else has come up with.
2) Analogies/Parallels. You need to be able to demonstrate how a current situation relates to one that has gone before. This makes it much easier for your audience to understand.

3) Evidence. It's no good making statements that you can't justify. You need to provide examples to support your argument, rather than to make your argument.
4) Endorsement. This is like calling an expert witness in a court case. If you can cite (other) acknowledged experts who agree with you, it makes your case much stronger.

5) Humour. This is not (definitely not) joke-telling. Leave that to the stand-up comedians. Your humour should be natural and in context with the speech.

If you can combine all those five elements, your speech will be strong and purposeful. All you need to do then is to deliver it well.

PREPARE YOUR MEDIA AD-LIBS

Any stand-up comedian will tell you that their apparent ad-libs and heckler put-downs are carefully crafted in advance. You can use exactly the same technique when preparing for media interviews.

You will have very little time to react and craft a perfect message when a reporter calls. It is more important to be responsive to the media than to spend hours deciding the best possible response. If you don't supply a statement or quote quickly, someone else will, and they may be a rival, or someone with a grudge against your organisation. You need to establish yourself, very quickly, as a prime source of information that the media can approach to for a viewpoint.

If a journalist tells you that they need a response by eleven o'clock in the morning, you need to supply it by five to eleven, not ten past eleven. A few minutes late can mean that your brilliant quote may never be heard. Of course, you can prepare your quote in advance, such as when a report is due for publication, and you know you will be asked to comment. In the apparent "heat of the moment" you can then deliver your carefully crafted message.

The best way to deal with any sudden media request is to have a list of agreed "position statements" in the hands of anyone who might be confronted by a camera or microphone. Update these statements regularly - say every three months - and your spokespeople will be able to deal with most issues without having to call a meeting first. When I was a media spokesman for a large organisation, I could recite any one of ten position statements on various issues, and could adapt them for any situation. That's what you need to do too, otherwise you could be caught out.

GEORGE ORWELL'S FIVE RULES OF BLOGGING

OK, George Orwell was never a blogger. One of the greatest ever writers died sixty-eight years ago. However, his rules still hold good today. In his essay, "Politics and the English Language", he defined five rules of writing. Here's my take on them for bloggers everywhere:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Although these phrases are in common usage - "It's not rocket science", "Out of the box thinking" etc, etc., they have lost their impact. Try to be original to make the reader sit up and think, or don't use metaphors at all.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. This is embedded in the brain of all newspaper sub-editors. It's just as easy (in fact easier) to convey a message in simple words as in complex language.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. People use "filler words" in speech all the time - "Actually", "To be perfectly honest". These words and phrases have no meaning, and no place in your writing.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Make your blog as easy to read as possible by helping the reader with simple grammar.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. I see this rule broken most often. English is such a rich language, there is no need to resort to another.
However, George also added a sixth rule: Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I agree, and think that the bonus rule is most important of all. As the song goes "If you can't say anything real nice, please don't talk at all, that's my advice". That doesn't mean you have to be nicey-nicey all the time, but name-calling and abuse is a poor approach.
Now, having set out the rules, I'm sure I'll break a few of them from time to time. So will you (and so did George). But as guidance for good blogging, I'm signed up to them.

Some things are hard to explain

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The information in this ezine may be freely re-used in any online or offline publication, provided it is accompanied by the following credit line - "This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in "The MediaCoach", his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk."