Media Awareness

It's not just the senior management who need to understand today's media- The press will talk to everyone and anyone!

The general media awareness course is aimed at everyone from admin to security, shift workers to duty managers who would never be put in the role of official company spokesperson but could be in the line of media fire during an evacuation or muster. This half day course for up to 8 participants covers everything from newspapers to broadcast media and shows relevant, up to date examples of companies who have not given their staff any consideration when it comes to media awareness.

A full scale evacuation of your building, admin block, oil terminal, gas plant or office. Your staff are assembling at muster points and the media arrive. Security block their access to the site for safety reasons and now the press start shouting questions to your staff and filming them while they wait for further information. How do you think they will react? Some may simply ignore the cameras and wait patiently, some may engage in communication with the media while updating their status on Facebook and twitter. They may already post video clips and images to YouTube and shift workers might find it amusing to make signals, signs and start playing up to the cameras.Unrealistic? Far from it!

We look at the relevant headlines, explain the media objectives and explain the dangers of updating social networking sites during any incident. To give everyone the experience of facing the press, participants are invited to take part in a doorstep type interview and also play the role of media during the session.

By fully explaining the implications of status updates on Facebook, the dangers of posting pictures on twitter and the impact on relatives that may see raw, unedited video on YouTube, your staff will have a clearer understanding of the modern media and your company reputation will not be damaged by unauthorised quotes and comments from your staff and contractors.

Seeing yourself as others see you is also a valuable lesson and the interviews can be played back during the course. Reputations can be severely damaged by staffing coming across us unprepared, unprofessional and uncaring - 

and it happens with alarming regularity!