Crafting powerful media messaging

You got the call.

Or email. Or DM. A journalist is working on a story and they want to interview you. Can you be ready to talk in an hour?

In 2022’s media landscape, media requests come in on all channels as journalists work to meet increasingly tight deadlines. And the turnaround time to respond is short. Organizations, spokespeople, and analysts who can provide quality quotes and soundbites within these deadlines are more likely to be called on again as they are reliable resources in a fast-moving industry.

Accepting the interview

If you are able to provide comment on a story, there are some key pieces of information to get from the journalist when you contact them to confirm. These include:

• Format and length of the interview:

  • If radio/video, will it be recorded or live

  • If radio/video, estimated length of the interview

  • If written, the deadline to provide comment

• The scope of the interview (themes, issues to be covered)

• Who else is being interviewed for the story (where applicable)

• Any additional information or resources you can provide for the story

Once you know when you will be providing comment, you can prepare your messaging.

Messaging that sticks

It can be really difficult to distill complex analysis and ideas down to tight, punchy soundbites. Before you head to an interview, write out the key points that you want to communicate and practice saying them out loud. Listen to how your sentence land on your ear. Do they sound natural, memorable, and tight? Are you speaking in neat packages with one idea per sentence or are your messages turning into run-on sentences? When you speak in run-on sentences, you risk leaving the journalist without any usable quotes.

3 components to memorable messaging: Head, heart, hand

As you get more comfortable speaking with journalists, this framework can help you structure your messaging to have three critical components.

1. Head
   Start with what you know, the problem statement. Ideally, ground this with quantitative data. E.g. rising rental prices year over year, how much inflation has outpaced ODSP support.

2. Heart
   Why it matters, why people (the audience) should care. This is the qualitative balance to the quantitative lead. E.g. With woefully inadequate support, disabled Ontarians are living in legislated poverty.

3. Hand
   What can be done, the call to action. This is a critical component of messaging. Without this component, we can leave the audience feeling overwhelmed and disempowered. Explain what progress would look like. E.g. your organization’s position or call to action distilled down to a sentence.

If you can deliver: what we know, why it matters, and what can be done in your interview, you will be providing valuable insight, well-packaged soundbites and memorable messaging.

A note about sharing space

A critical component of justice work is recognizing when it is your time to speak and when you are not the person to speak on an issue. Just because a journalist has reached out to you does not mean that you are necessarily the best person for that interview. If the story is about an issue that affects historically marginalized communities of which you are not a part, consider sending the journalist to another contact.

It’s valuable work to connect journalists with more appropriate spokespeople for their stories, and it’s critical work for people and organizations committed to equity and social justice to share space and amplify marginalized voices.

Want to work on your media plan? We’re here to help!