Media Awareness and Behaviour Course

Picture the scene. . .

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!

"Hello Mum, I'm on the telly"

We have hours worth of news footage showing examples of the "Hello Mum, I'm on the telly" type behaviour along with very distressed workers claiming tat the company is holding back on information.

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.

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!

If you can see the camera, assume that it's filming!

Preparing staff who may be involved in full scale exercises, this course shows positive examples of general behaviour when there are cameras present leaving the message very clear - if you can see the camera, assume that it's filming!

Clients within the emergency services have also learned to make general changes to their normal operations during an incident by attending a media awareness session and, in particular, ensuring that their two way communication is not providing a full commentary for the recording media standing alongside.

If the voice on the end of the 2 way radio confirms casualties or serious injury, the media will use this information as part of the story. Security teams are shown ways to ensure that safety and security is maintained at all times without coming across as obstructive or aggressive in any way.

They are given simple phrases and techniques to help manage the media while waiting for official spokespeople, press office, public affairs or corporate communications to take over. In the case of external contracting companies, generic messages can be used that apply to all companies with many participants feeding back that this training course is valuable when working at other locations.

What about reception or humanitarian centres? When your people arrive they will be faced with camera crews and reporters. Their priority will be to look after families and staff  but the media will talk to everyone and anyone. This general awareness course ensures that there is a full understanding of what could happen and how to manage every situation. Offshore workers, general shift workers and administration will all benefit from this half day media awareness course.