Handling the Media

Another excellent module of Cardiff Futures.  After an introductory talk by the internal Comms team, we had an oustanding presentation by Richard Sambrook. We were treated to a humorous stack of anecdotes featuring Princess Diana, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Paxman, Michael Howard, Angelina Jolie, Rupert Murdoch, and an audio clip of himself defending the BBC (following Alistair Campbell's attack) on the Today programme - but this was not mere entertainment (and still less name dropping) but rather a well crafted sequence of stories each designed to exemplify a crucial message for any academic contemplating engaging with the media.

The rest of the day was led by Karen Ainley of Mosaic, with whom we have worked before.  She started by taking advantage of Richard's presence and interviewing him, to demonstrate how to make a podcast.

After that, Karen took us through the five Ps of a Perfect Podcast, and the participants spent the rest of the afternoon making a podcast in four groups.  These were all very good, ranging from the serious and useable to the irreverent and amusing!

For the second day of the course, we were also joined by Kevin Bentley, also of Mosaic; he and Karen then helped us prepare for and practice both TV and Radio interviews. We were working at NEP Cymru, which has a TV studio, so the whole process was a very close simulation of reality.

Despite some nervousness, not only did everyone survive, but all acquitted themselves admirably; most enjoyed it (at least surviving!) and some really took to it, and can be expected to pop up on the media on a regular basis.