Crisis Media Interview Skills: Essentials

Learn how to limit reputational damage during a crisis with confident media interviews

This half-day course will develop your crisis media interview skills and help you feel more confident under pressure.

What you’ll learn

Coping with media exposure when things are going wrong can be extremely difficult for a spokesperson but an empathetic and assured interview is an effective way to limit reputational damage and get your brand back on track.

This course covers how the media behaves in a crisis, the principles of empathetic crisis messaging, how to prepare for a grilling by journalists and techniques for managing nerves under hostile questioning.

How you’ll learn

Bespoke courses for teams take place in person at your offices or our central London training centres. Remote training via Zoom is also available, if preferred. The course is led by a broadcast journalist who is also a specialist media trainer with years of experience preparing spokespeople for crisis media interviews. 

Over three hours, they’ll use presentations, case studies, videos and practical exercises, culminating in a recorded TV mock crisis interview with trainer feedback for each attendee so that you can put all you’ve learned into practice. After training, you’ll receive full course notes by email and a link from which to download your interview recording. 

Who the Crisis Media Interview Skills course is for

This crisis media interview skills course is for you if you are expected to be the face of your organisation during tricky times, giving media interviews, briefings and updates.

We currently offer this course as bespoke training for teams and can deliver it remotely or in your offices. Get in touch using the button below to discuss times and dates, as well as how we can tailor it to your needs. 

If you are an individual looking for training, you can find all our scheduled courses here. 

Course Modules

Key Theory

  1. Understanding how the media behaves in a crisis
  2. Learning from recent crises and their consequences
  3. The best way to prepare for a crisis media interview
  4. Crafting effective crisis messages
  5. Limiting reputational damage with demeanour, tone and empathy

Practical Exercises

  1. Identifying your potential crisis issues
  2. Create a crisis message for your organisation
  3. Breathing exercises for controlling nerves
  4. Recording a mock crisis TV interview

Crisis Media Interview Skills: Essentials

Learn how to limit reputational damage during a crisis with confident media interviews

Get in touch

What our students say

View all testimonials

The staff truly go above and beyond, providing detailed feedback, a wealth of knowledge and many career opportunities. I’d recommend the course to any budding journalist. You’ll have fun, too!  

Erin Waks
, Trainee Sub-Editor
, Daily Mail

The teaching I received was second to none and despite having no experience whatsoever in journalism, the tutors made sure there was a friendly environment where I felt welcome to ask any questions I needed. I was able to finish the course and go into a job working for The Sun.

Olivia Allhusen
, Junior Journalist
, The Sun

Not only did I develop the necessary toolkit to become a journalist, but I also did so in an environment that fosters a real sense of community and personal career support.

Erin Waks
, Trainee Sub-Editor
, Daily Mail

The lifelike interview settings and tasks that PA Media Training deal in replicate perfectly the real-world feel of a tough media interview and help the delegates come out of the day feeling much more confident that they can play an active role in representing their organisation.

Transport for London
, Director of Communications & Corporate Affairs

I honestly thought that the whole day was fabulous!!! You really couldn’t have done anymore for us. The combination of practical exercises and feedback was particularly useful, it was a challenging day (in a very good way) in that we really had to think, learn and adapt quickly. I know the team are significantly better prepared for media interviews after this training.

Fragile X Society
, Managing Director

My time at PA Training was a whirlwind of fun and excitement. The full-time NCTJ course in London is fast-paced and hard work but perfectly sets you up for what to expect in a reporter role.

Camilla Foster
, Reporter
, Newsquest

Contact us

For more information , simply fill out the form and a member of our team will be in touch.

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For more information , simply fill out the form and a member of our team will be in touch.