MEDIA TRAINING

If there's smoke and flames, there will be cameras and reporters. Any incident that affects anyone outside a facility's fenceline can become a media event.

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"No comment" reads as "Guilty" to the general public.  And silence can be just as damaging.  A reporter on the scene will come up with a story, and if the Responsible Party isn't talking, the bulk of the story may come from an angry resident, a disgruntled employee, a special-interest group, a grieving victim's relative, and the reporter's own conjectures.  Media-savvy company officials know how to abate this kind of undeserved bad publicity, and that's by talking to the media early and often.   A media-friendly environment during an incident keeps the reporters coming to the accurate source of information

But, what to say and not to say is critical.  That's where effective Media Training comes in.  For the past eighteen years, TPT's Jim Zura has worked with Melanie Miller, Chuck Wolf and Bob Gresser of Media Consultants providing such training.  Miller (former News Director of KTRH Radio), Wolf (former News Director of KIKK Radio), and Gresser (former reporter for KTRH and KIKK) conduct full-day training seminars.  This followed by individual role-play sessions, with Zura joining the team as a TV cameraman / reporter, where the trainee is exposed to the challenge of reporter confrontation.  After each situation, the team then offers the trainee constructive critique.  These one-on-one simulations are based on  realistic and accurate scenarios developed using site-specific  variables.

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Chuck Wolf and Jim Zura "confront" a trainee.

Melanie Miller conducts a simulated telephone interview.
INCIDENT OCCURS DURING MEDIA TRAINING
HOUSTON- Media Consultants had just begun the day's role-play session when an alarm sounded, indicating an emergency evacuation from the plant area to the company's main office building.  A tank containing 80,000 gallons of a volatile chemical began overheating unexpectedly.  While no reportable quantities were leaking, the company called for a precautionary evacuation within one mile of the tank, an area populated only by neighboring chemical plants.

The company pro-actively began faxing news releases to the media, right from the beginning stages of the incident.  The Media Consultants team immediately switched hats to service the client's urgent needs.  Chuck Wolf worked with the company's Information Officer, writing statements and managing the media and community affairs.  Melanie Miller and Jim Zura fielded the media phone calls, effectively becoming spokespersons for the plant.

The media soon arrived in full force, and the Company was ready.  The Company's Information Officer provided on-camera media briefings throughout the day.  Many members of the media made it a point to compliment the Company on how well they handled the event; in stark contrast to other recent incidents at nearby plants.

As it turned out, nothing consequential happened and no one was hurt.  But in the wake of recent plant explosions, this "non-event" became a media feeding frenzy.  Many key individuals from the Company were very grateful for having just completed their media training from Media Consultants.

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