Violeta, Bentley, 31/03/09

MEDIA TRAINING
Did anybody go through unpleasant experience of suggesting it to your Boss?

I have experienced an interesting and rather unpleasant situation when I approached the Director of the Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice, asking him for few sentences I can use as a direct quote in a media release. Being a highly educated professional, whose language is far from common, his quote was very long and confusing. The big words, he was using, would not be understood by the general public reading the paper. So, I had to ask him if he could maybe put it in simpler, smaller words. And he tried…it didn’t sound much different. Being new to the organisation, just an intern, I thought I better just go with it.

But then when I tried to put it in a logical order in a media release, it just could not fit in. Having the understanding of what the journalist would like to see in the media release I could not run with it. I have gathered the courage, after talking to my supervisor, and approached him again. I have asked him for an approval to change his quote and double checked the meaning and intent he wanted to convey. He did not look impressed but his answer was very nice and pleasant. He told me that I got the essence of what he is trying to say and trusts me paraphrasing it. So what I did is: I paraphrased one sentence by using the indirect quote and used just a partial quote for the direct one. This was then used in most publications, exactly as I have written it. Actually, the whole story was written exactly as I have sent it in a media release and the background information I sent. This has got me thinking… how slack some journalists get…seriously? And then they attach their own name to the story!

Anyway, back to the quote subject… Few weeks later I have organised an interview for the Director with the journalist from Fremantle Herald. He attended the interview and was quite happy with how it went. But the problem has risen when the story got published. He walked in the office (where I was sitting together with my supervisor) and expressed his concern over being misquoted at the Fremantle Herald. My supervisor looked at me hoping I would say something …I did not dare…But she did… she told him, in a nicest possible way, that that might be due to misunderstanding of his highly academic language. He has acknowledged that and sad (smiling and looking at me) that he will be more careful in the future.

I do not know, now reflecting back, what gave me the courage to query the Director. Maybe it is due to the support from the supervisor, maybe due to the understanding of journalism and my experiences? But one thing is for sure - I am definitely glad I did as we all have learned something from it. I guess it is how you approach the situation and the boss you have. My boss was really great and I was lucky but it was NOT easy.