Rules for Interviews

There are some rules that apply to interviews for newspapers, radio, and television. The general rules are:

Deadlines

• The mass media operates around strict deadlines.
• Respect the deadline. If you don’t, you may lose your opportunity to be heard.
• A morning newspaper has a late evening deadline whereas an afternoon paper has an early morning deadline. A daily newspaper operates under different deadlines to a weekly newspaper. Television and radio interviews, unless live broadcasts, need to be done several hours before the program is aired or screened. Breaking news in the electronic media usually needs to be in an hour before the program.
• Ask what the deadline is for the article or program that you are being interviewed for.
• Journalists also work on features – sometimes over a few weeks, for investigative pieces, months even. But in this time their story focus may change several times. This means although you were interviewed, your quote may not fit in with the final story and gets dropped from it. If this happens to you don’t be disappointed or angry. Certainly do not phone to complain. It is simply the way things go sometimes.
• If you think you were dropped because you may have said something that put the journalist off interviewing you, then reflect on it and try to learn lessons from it. You may need to make a casual call and fish around a bit – unless the direct approach is better.
• If you think you were dropped for political reasons, then do try and find out in a constructive way. It is part of the learning and strategizing for your company.
• Nurture the relationship you have with the journalist and offer to help them in whatever way you can. This could come in handy when you are implementing your own companies media strategy.
• Each interviewer has an angle. This is a journalistís term for their focus for the story or program. In the case of the indigenous people returning to the land, the media may want to interview you to find out about the conflict between the indigenous people and the settler farmers.

Newsworthiness

Generally you are being asked for an interview so that you can add something that is newsworthy or of interest to readers, listeners or viewers. The media will be after something that is:

• news
• presenting a new perspective
• important
• interesting
• relevant to readers’, viewers’ or listeners’ lives

Bear the profile of the readers, listeners or viewers in mind at all times so that you relate your issue to their lives. You can suggest a new angle for the story – journalists often appreciate this.