 Is a journalist always a vulture? Is the fact that "blood sells" true? What do actually media want from us? There were a lot of issues discussed during the Media Training that took place from 5th to 6th March 2008 at the Baltic Barracks.
The omnipresence of the media is an obvious and accepted fact unless it is not us who are to stand in the limelight. Participants of a two-day Media Training could experience how challenging and stressful it might be to answer inconvenient questions in front of a microphone and a TV camera…
Mostly MNC NE senior officers as well as guests from the 1st Estonian Brigade and 7th Polish Brigade took part in the training organised by the Public Affairs Office. The training itself was conducted by the training team from the Royal Danish Defence Media Centre with Maj. Lasse Nelson as their leader, and also by Mr Klaus Pokatzky, a German radio journalist and an instructor at the German Academy for Information and Communication in Strausberg.Â
Although there was a bit of theory presented to the participants, the training was more focused on practice. The participants had several opportunities to act in front of a TV camera and also to give a radio interview. Journalists did their best to teach how to behave during an interview and how to express opinions effectively. There was a lot of fun and humour during the whole training, especially while watching and discussing recorded interviews…
Even though two days is not enough to learn everything about dealing with the media, it is enough to learn basic rules and take these tips and pieces of advice to heart. More importantly, those two days and discussions with real journalists offered a perfect chance to get to know a bit more about the world of media and to debunk some myths and stereotypes involved. This knowledge can be an advantage in the future when a journalist craving for information appears to find out what is actually going on out there.
