Episode 134 - Listen To This If…You Get Invited To Talk With A Journalist

Transcript

Jen (00:00:08)

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Listen to This If from us, the team at Let's Talk SciComm. I'm Jen and as ever I'm joined by my brilliant friend Michael. And in these episodes we take one little topic and have a chat about how we think maybe you could tackle it.

So hello Michael. Today we are talking about what happens if you get this amazing opportunity and be invited to be interviewed by a journalist? Is that cause for great celebration or great nervousness? What do you reckon?

Michael (00:00:42)

Ooh, I think a little bit of both. I mean, it's great that a journalist is reaching out to you to have a chat, but it's... It definitely comes with some nerves because especially if that's something that you haven't really done before, it can be a little bit nerve wracking.

So my advice really would be to be really clear on what your message is, what your main message is, but also be prepared to go off on a little bit of a tangent. And I've got a bit of an analogy that I'm going to try out.

Jen (00:01:12)

Ooh, I love your analogies. You know how much I love them.

Michael (00:01:16)

So I think it's a little bit like preparing to take a dog for a walk. And uhh... I don't own a dog, but I have taken other people's dogs for a walk. So, you start off and there's a path that you want to go down with the dog, but the dog might have other ideas. You know, maybe there's an interesting smell over here. Maybe there's an interesting thing over there, piece of food on the ground. And you know, you have to be I suppose, willing a little bit for the dog to you know, go over there. But you have to be really clear on you know, where you want to go at the end of the day, especially if you don't want your dog going over there.

You might have to try and bring back the conversation to the main message. So you know, depending on what it is that they want to talk about. You know, if they want to just talk about your main message points that you want to talk about, great, you know? You don't have to do anything, except talk about what you want to talk about.

But if they are, if they throw you a curveball question or ask you about something tangential, you know, you can entertain it if you want. But if you want to bring it back, maybe you have to have a phrase like, "That's really interesting. I don't know about that. But what I do know about is this". Yeah, so that's my advice.

Jen (00:02:35)

Yeah, I think that's really excellent advice. And I was thinking, are you sure you weren't in my home last night when our beautiful dog Molly had very clear ideas of where she wanted to walk? And it was not where I wanted to walk. But then we bumped into Ted, the dog next door, and Ted and Molly then decided where they wanted to walk. So I don't know how that adds to the analogy...

Michael (00:02:57)

Oh, so is Ted the equivalent of someone who calls in and derails the conversation?

Jen (00:03:01)

Maybe. But happily, Ted wanted to go where I wanted to go. So Ted was a very helpful friend. But I think you're absolutely right. There has to be flexibility. But I think your point about knowing what your key messages are is so important.

I feel like before you go into any interview, which, you know, you really do need to see as this wonderful opportunity. Because having more visibility, a broader audience for your work is just such a fantastic thing. But knowing what the non-negotiables are for you in terms of by the time I finish this conversation, whether it be on radio or with a print journalist or whoever it is, I need to have got across these things.

And as you say, being willing to drag the conversation and be quite assertive if you have to. Especially on radio, if you know you're only likely to get four or five or six minutes and you can feel the conversation going off track, it's so important that you do exactly what you suggested and be quite brave and courageous and sort of drag it back before you run out of time.

The other two things I think I would add is (1) Be aware that in many cases, unless it's a live radio interview, what you say is going to be edited and shortened and it's likely to be just quick quotes and quick grabs that get taken. So in that regard, it just means everything you say needs to be clear. You know, don't worry so much about completeness, about explaining everything in great detail and assuming that your audience, whoever the audience is, will hear the whole thing or read the whole thing. Be really focused on the clarity so that if little bits of your conversation are taken and reprinted or rebroadcast, it's going to make sense.

And the last thing I would just say is be really mindful about what you are not going to say, because it's quite likely that a journalist, who they are acting on behalf of their audience and might ask quite left field broad questions. That's their job. You know, they're going to be broadly curious. Go into it being clear that if they ask about X, I know that "I don't want to speak about that" or "I can't speak about that" or "I don't have the expertise to speak about that". And again... be courageous and be brave enough to kind of redirect like you said.

"Actually, that's not something that I'm covering in my work or that's outside of what I'm currently interested in" or however you want to say it. But don't get dragged into talking about something that actually, you know, you're not comfortable with. And being clear on those boundaries from the beginning I think is really helpful.

Michael (00:05:33)

Yeah, I definitely have been dragged into a conversation about.... So I did physical activity research, and I don't know how it ended up talking about horses. But yeah, completely dragged into a conversation about horses.

So yeah, I think, you know, if a journalist contacts you, you could probably also look them up. Have a look at what kind of style do they have, and that can then help you prepare and feel better about it as well. I should have done that.

Jen (00:06:03)

Yeah, absolutely. So good luck, and we've got lots of podcast episodes that can help you prepare for this interview.

But, you know, go forth and do it and have fun. It's a really wonderful opportunity to share your work. So good luck.

Michael (00:06:16)

Yes, good luck.

Michael (00:06:25)

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And also a big thank you to our production team, Steven Tang and Madeleine Kelly.