From the CBS News blog. Lessons the Balloon Boy incident can teach us about media training. In this blog post read about what the PIO, or in this case Sheriff, did wrong in their dealings with the media. Take from it some tips on dealing with the press / media. Media training lessons in dealing with the press. Comments welcome.

L’Affaire Balloon Boy

Posted by Andrew Cohen October 18, 2009 3:37 PM

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden

 When Sheriff Alderden spoke to the media Friday — speaking like a kind uncle rather than a hard-bitten law man — he made it very clear that he and his detectives believed that the Heenes believed that their son was either in the balloon or otherwise missing

 ”Clearly, we were manipulated by the family and the media was manipulated by the family,” an edgier Sheriff Alderden said Sunday, at yet another press conference, just moments before he admitted to having himselfmanipulated the media over the weekend during his earlier press conferences. You follow?

 No matter if you don’t. One day soon we’ll know what the Heenes said, or didn’t say, to the sheriff on Saturday to make him change his mind. One day we’ll know what the authorities found when they searched the home over the weekend. One day, those of you who still care will know the rest of the story about how this family apparently succeeded in thrusting itself into the limelight, literally and figuratively, to sell a reality-show deal. One day we’ll know if the couple is still, today, conning the sheriff. [After all, what better way for the camera-hungry parents to ensure their continued exposure than to incriminate themselves in the hope of gettingL’Affaire Balloon Boy to trial?

 In the meantime, whether or not the whole thing were a hoax, Alderden might want to send his officers back to detective school to do a better job of evaluating the accurate meaning of “verbal and non-verbal” clues and cues. Indeed, if the Heenes were acting out a hoax during Falcon’s 300 minutes of glory, it seems about the only people fooled were the police in the house at the time. And the sheriff himself might want to get a refresher on his media training, too. I’m pretty sure that cops aren’t supposed to declare their prime suspects to be innocent before they are charged.

Read The Complete Article At:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/18/courtwatch/entry5394579.shtml

(C) 2009 www.Media-Training.info

One of the first things we tell our media training clients is that they should eliminate the TLAs (three letter acronyms)- pun intended. Cut out the TLAs, techno speak and jargon and you are well on your way to getting your message delivered. 

To the point of communicating clearly, I saw a blog post, reprinted below, telling emergency workers the importance of clear communications and thought that we could all take a lesson from it in how we communicate with and deal the media.

I think this sentence from their post says it all:

“While your target audience may understand specialized language, acronyms, and regional slang it is important to remember that they will not be the only ones looking at what you create. Not communicating using common terms will limit the ability for your message to be understood by a broader audience.”

The entire post is reprinted below with permission.

Communicate In Plain English

Posted by Dave at 12 October, 2009, 6:00 am

Josh Hanagrane wrote an interesting post at CopyBlogger titled Blogging Is A Dialect: Do You Speak It? While the post is deeply involved with discussion about dialects, language, and that successful blogging = relationships, there is a simple and important point that needs to be understood and more importantly practiced.

Communicate in Social Media using “plain english”.

One of the major directives in the Incident Command System (ICS) is that responders and providers use common terminology or “plain english” in communicating with one another. This practice is meant to avoid misunderstanding while operating with providers from other agencies and possibly other geographical areas areas.

The same can be said about Social Media. While your target audience may understand specialized language, acronyms, and regional slang it is important to remember that they will not be the only ones looking at what you create. Not communicating using common terms will limit the ability for your message to be understood by a broader audience.

Try to keep your Social Media simple and uncomplicated.

 http://piosocialmediatraining.com/2009/10/communicate-in-plain-english/

 ABOUT PIOSOCIALMEDIATRAINING.COM

Through the power of Social Media individuals, groups, and large corporations all have an equal opportunity to be heard. The mission of the content here at PIOSocialMediaTraining.com is to empower Agencies to effectively engage in the creation of Social Media to achieve their own unique goals.

(C) 2009 www.media-training.info

Media Training In The News #2   Sports Edition

Media training- College basketball players, potential NASCAR drivers and hockey coaches are all getting it. Read all about it in these segments clipped from around the web. Click on the link to read the entire article.  

Lady Tigers Take Media Training Seminar

BATON ROUGE — Members of the LSU women’s basketball team completed the first of two media training seminars on Thursday in an effort to enhance the communication skills of the Lady Tigers on the court and off the court.

 …spoke on several key points to a good interview with the media, including eye contact, posture, appearance, the tone and volume of a message and the content of that message. The qualities affect the overall brand and image of a student-athlete and how they represent her team and LSU.

http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=204796454

 2009 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Combine

The Drive for Diversity Testing & Evaluation Combine brings together 25 of the country’s top minority and female drivers for two days of on and off track competition. Drivers invited to the Combine are there for one reason – to showcase their skills in front of NASCAR officials, team owners and industry media in an effort to earn a ride with a team in either the NASCAR Camping World Series or the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

Combine participants take part in rigorous on-track testing and off-track media training and evaluation

http://www.whowon.com/sResults.asp?SanctionID=230&StoryID=278530

 Five things: Rangers spending spree could pay off for once

Sep. 17, 2009

By Wes Goldstein

CBSSports.com Staff Writer

This season could feature a kinder, gentler Tortorella than the one who earned a one-game suspension during the playoffs for throwing a bottle and brandishing a stick at a fan. Tortorella’s, er, emotions have gotten the best of him before, including a 1995 incident when he was an assistant coach at Buffalo and earned a three-game suspension for an altercation with a fan who turned out to be an assistant district attorney. Then there was the time in 1997, when Tortorella was head coach for Rochester of the American Hockey League in 1997, that he shoved a fan in the forehead, although that incident did not result in a suspension. Tortorella has also had his fair share of spirited disagreements with media members, so the Rangers had him go through some media training over the summer to reduce the chances of that happening, too. “The biggest area I have to work on this season is the stupidity that happened in the playoff series last year,” Tortorella said. “I’ve got to get to a point where I don’t lose control. Emotion is a strength, but it can be a weakness.”

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/story/12222464

 (C) 2009 www.Media-Training.info

Kanye West Doesn’t Like Media Training

Media Training In The News

We all watched in dumbfound amazement when Kayne West grabbed the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hand at The 2009 MTV Music Video awards. Looking back we know that type of behavior is nothing new for Kayne. He also did it in 2006 at MTV’s Europe Music Awards.

Looking back on some of Kayne’s comments he seems to blame media training, or lack of training, for why he does or doesn’t do certain things.

2005:

Before the 2005 Grammys, Kanye warned there would be a “real problem” if he went away empty-handed. He said artists who claimed to “love everybody but themselves” were just engaging in “cliched media training“.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/sep/14/kanye-west-taylor-swift-timeline

(C) 2009 www.Media-Training.info