Journalism is challenged to listen and answer questions on the media’s disclosure of its own corporate sustainability standards.

Weak disclosure of corporate sustainability standards and initiatives by media outlets have alerted the GRI Media Sector Supplement team and staff facilitators to journalism’s poor track record in easing disclosure of corporate sustainability standards and initiatives by its own media outlets. In reporting on corporate sustainability records and report cards of other industries and sectors, its own idealism and devotion to truth, accountability and transparency has hit a blind spot when the questions are required to be answered by the journalism industry.

What is this blind spot? News organizations increasingly belong to transnational conglomerates, often resulting in a failure to support serious journalism, with conglomerates providing infotainment, which is the cheapest, safest way to grab audiences. Journalists are faced with demands, which have more to do with deep-rooted newsroom practices.

Also, journalism has been dominated by a traditional top down communication model:  “one to many” for too long.  If this example of a blind spot is to teach them anything, it is that the new participatory journalism with emails, twitter and blogs, has taken public opinion seriously.

 

Rather than simply being spectators of a show being played from Washington, Toronto or Westminster, it means rethinking basic journalistic conventions about covering issues, such as CSR from other perspectives, including its own. 

For those of us who have actually sat in a newsroom within a TV station or newspaper, we know that the decisions about what runs in the newshour or daily edition can and do change with almost every hour.  The news is in constant flux which means staying on top of shifting priorites and facts is the occupational hazard of any writer or journalist. That's what makes working in the news addictive.  Well, in my case it was an addiction to coffee, such is the adrenaline high that everyone is working on!

 

Now picture this.  A committee of earnest, good people are sitting around a boardroom table  discussing how to get a worthy cause into the headlines.  As consumers of news they naturally assume they know their story is destined to be picked up and played to audiences around their city, province or country.  They also assume that good work should be rewarded with publicity and because they are perpetually fundraising, this publicity should be offered freely.  As well, they have a spokesperson with some profile who has assured the directors the cache of their name will almost certainly ensure media pick-up. 

 

Enter the marketing or media staffer.  Addressing these high expectations takes a lot of tact and diplomacy if one is really doing one's job, which is to keep it real. Added to this, the dread that having worked in a newsroom, one is going to be asked to use one's network of contacts to get the story into the news.  In major metropolitan media markets this is, of course, impossible.  The stories that get into the media are the hard stories of wars, corruption, political scandals, natural disasters and so on.  The softer stories about a campaign to clean up rivers or about a walk to raise funds for a hospice are destined to run in local papers and if there's any luck, maybe on a local television channel.  This means that those issues that many find uncomfortable, such as high suicide rates among young native men, or the personal cost of Alzheimer disease upon caregivers, or the erosion of the environment by human actions, don't really get into public consciousness. 

 

Why is this?  Back in the 1970s I left broadcasting to work in alternative media where we wrote about what was really happening in Latin and South America.  I interviewed one of the Mothers of May Square whose grandchild has been abducted and another woman imprisoned and tortured in Argentina for union activity in the factory where she worked.  I also saw photos of nun's being tortured in the Phillipines.  Back then this news rarely, if ever, made it to the networks or newspapers.  These days, of course, we see and learn about these atrocities on the nightly news, newspapers and the Internet.  I suppose we can thank the  journalism schools for turning out journalists who are interested in covering these painful stories.

 

What is a charity to do?  I think being a little less "pinkies in the air" about approaching the media is appropriate.  After all, it's these people who are the experts.  Surely, those on the front lines deserve more profile than a short blurb in a local paper? They need to find  their voices.  These issues shake us out of our apathy and make us appreciate what we have to offer others less fortunate through no fault of their own. 

I watched Michael Caine, the actor on You Tube providing coaching tips on acting for the camera. His seasoned approach was edifying. For him, the camera is a friend who will love you forever. It listens to everything and sees everything. So it’s really important never to bluff, but to remain sincere.

It was refreshing to hear from a seasoned pro about effective communication on- camera. Having spent over 20 years directing on-camera talent for television news, current affairs shorts, corporate videos and commercials I have encountered every type of personality quirk and tick going. However easy it looks to the audience, going in front a camera isn’t easy at all for anyone.

Effective communication skills are learned, not innate. Developing an understanding of the media and improving your on-camera skills and media interview proficiency allows you to be relaxed and personal as much as possible. The key to getting your comfort zone in an unfamiliar setting, such as a television studio is about understanding what is going on around you so that you can relax, concentrate and focus.

There is a tried and tested way to engage an audience with an on-camera appearance:

Natural and personal

This method of natural, relaxed concentration delivers the personal tone that has been perfected by movie actors like Michael Caine who are able to convey a story, subtly.

This approach enables you to relax and be positive, make memorable statements on the issues that you want to address and to look and sound natural and fully engaged with your audience.

Michael Caine’s on-camera tips

• Treat the camera like a friend who will love you forever. Remain sincere. You cannot bluff the camera because it sees everything.
• Always maintain eye contact without changing eyes or blinking as this weakens your presence.
• Relaxation comes through maintaining your concentration. You don’t have to push it or go over the top.

Summary

Why am I impressed with the acting approach to on-camera interviews? Because it enables a spokesperson to practice listening. This makes the message more organic and steers away from the theoretical approach of repeating the key message over and over, which makes the spokesperson look wooden and sound like a bad salesperson. The fact is that the impact of social media is changing the rules of engagement with reporters, as customers, employees, competitors, investors, stakeholders of journalists can answer questions about an organization, its products and services using social media channels, such as Blogs. So the chances of controlling messages are almost impossible. If you’re media training spokespersons take a tip from Michael Caine – “the camera sees and hears everything, so you can never bluff or lie.”