Crisis Communications

Learn how your comms team can leverage its media relationships to shape coverage and limit reputational damage during a crisis

Learn how to prepare and execute effective strategies for protecting your organisation’s reputation at the most difficult times

This full-day and half-day Crisis Communications Course focuses on how to develop and implement strong strategies to safeguard your organisation’s reputation during challenging situations and under media scrutiny.

What you’ll learn

How can you predict and prepare effective strategies for a crisis? What crises are most likely to affect your organisation? What are the stages of a crisis? Who are the right spokespeople and when and why should they do interviews? How do you balance the priorities of your organisation and your stakeholders with the demands of media outlets? How do you use tone and empathy across your channels to defuse hostility and maintain trust?  

All this and more is covered in this Crisis Communications training, to ensure your team understands how the media works in a crisis and how to ensure your organisation’s point of view is heard in the most difficult periods in the media spotlight.

Learn from experts

This Crisis Communications course takes place in person at your own offices or at PA Headquarters in Paddington. 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 training spokespeople and comms teams. They’ll share their expertise and use presentations, case studies, discussion and practical exercises to build your ability to prepare and plan for a crisis and manage the media during intense scrutiny.

After training, you’ll receive full course notes by email and a link from which to download your interview recording.

Who this Crisis Media Handling Masterclass is for

This course is for both spokespeople and teams responsible for liaising with media during and after reputational crises, including press officers and people working in communications, PR, external affairs and public affairs. 

You could consider pairing this course with Advanced Media Handling training and our Crisis Media Training for spokespeople.

Course Modules

Crisis Communications Theory

  1. Crisis audit – what are your potential issues?
  2. Stages of a crisis
  3. Managing the media relationship in a crisis
  4. Priorities for limiting reputational damage
  5. The Golden Hour – what to do at the start of a crisis
  6. Prepping spokespeople for crisis interviews

Practical exercises

  1. Your own crisis audit
  2. Draft holding and full statement
  3. Analyse media interview case studies
  4. Brainstorm responses to tricky questions
  5. Use tone and empathy in crisis messaging
  6. Record a TV crisis interview (optional)

Crisis Communications

Learn how your comms team can leverage its media relationships to shape coverage and limit reputational damage during a crisis

Get in touch

What our students say

View all testimonials

The training scenarios are as real to life as you could possibly get. They took considerable time to research our current plans and issues and used these to design a series of true to life radio and TV interviews. The team is outstanding, and their expertise and knowledge has been invaluable. Book them – you’ll be glad you did.

NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group
, Communications Manager

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

The small class sizes nurture a comfortable environment where everyone supports and learns from each other. The staff helped me hone in on my writing skills and develop the confidence to feel comfortable on camera.

Camilla Foster
, Reporter
, Newsquest

PA Media Training were efficient, well organised and genuinely lovely people to deal with and, importantly for us, able to provide flexibility around our needs to create the bespoke training we required. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for further training or to recommend them to other organisations.

Mayor of London’s Press Office
, Head of Media

The team is flexible, slick, well-resourced and overall simply first class. Their expertise and knowledge have been invaluable. I was delighted with our choice, so I’d have no hesitation in recommending them

Prostate Cancer UK
, Head of External Relations

What a great session we had on Communicating with Impact. Bridgid shared practical techniques to enhance and develop our communications skills so we can present and speak publicly or to senior stakeholders with confidence and impact.  I speak for my whole team in highly recommending Bridgid Nzekwu if you are after effective and fun communication training.

Vodafone
, Group Legal Director, Corporate Commercial & Compliance

Contact us

Do you wish to train on one of our specialist courses? Start by filling in the application form – we’ll ask you for some important information such as your education and employment history.

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Name*
By submitting this application form you confirm your acceptance that the information you have provided will be used during the recruitment procedure. Once the recruitment procedure is completed, the data will be stored for one year and then destroyed. If you are the successful candidate, relevant information may be taken from this form and used as part of your personnel record.
If you would like to receive regular updates from PA Media Academy, please tick here:

Contact us

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

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
By submitting this application form you confirm your acceptance that the information you have provided will be used during the recruitment procedure. Once the recruitment procedure is completed, the data will be stored for one year and then destroyed. If you are the successful candidate, relevant information may be taken from this form and used as part of your personnel record.
If you would like to receive regular updates from PA Media Academy, please tick here:

Contact us

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