Media Training

This week we had the media training at Cardiff, as part of the Futures programme. I always enjoy this module. The first sessions were about the context and some experiences with the media, with Claire Sanders, who is Communications Director for the University, kicking off, with a very interesting overview of her team's strategy and work.  Then we had Richard Sambrook, who was with the BBC for thirty years, ending as Director of the World Service and Global News. He is now a professor at Cardiff, and gave a great insight into the world of news stories.  He was followed by Chris Chambers, another Cardiff professor, who has his own fascinating story to tell about being misrepresented by the media, getting caught up in a media frenzy, and now working with colleagues to improve the reporting of science in the media, including conducting fascinating research into University press releases.

For the rest of the event, we worked with Karen Ainley and Kevin Bentley, of Mosaic. they are both ex-BBC journalists, and they trained us in the art of radio and television interviews; first by getting us to understand the nature of the medium and the importance of key messages, and then by mock interviews on radio and TV. They were both excellent.

As we were working in BBC Wales, we had the benefits of a proper studio, with some of the Cardiff media team operating the cameras, sound and mixing desks. We also had a tour of the studios, which was both educational and extremely interesting.

I, too, did a couple of interviews, both to show solidarity with the participants, and to keep my hand in - and in fact the TV one may well appear on this blog in due course, as it was a shameless plug for my book, which I have finally finished, and is currently being proof-read.

Everyone was buzzing by the end of the programme, and many said how much they had learned and how much they had enjoyed the programme.