Preparing for a media interview is important and can help you feel more confident and at ease. See below for media interview tips provided by MSU University Communications.
Interview prep:
- Create 2-3 talking points, one bottom line.
- Identify supporting examples, analogies, data, and personal experience.
- Simplify your answers.
- Anticipate hard questions and prepare answers for them.
Interview dos:
- Consider opening with a 90-second overview of your expertise and thoughts.
- Ask the reporter to clarify a confusing question.
- Be friendly, open, and respectful.
- Use a metaphor to paint a picture.
- Be honest if you don’t have an answer; you can always follow up with an email.
- Say how you want to be identified.
- Ask to repeat an answer asked earlier in the interview.
Interview don’ts:
- Use acronyms and jargon.
- Say things “off the record.”
- Ask to read the story before it’s published.
- Stray too far from your expertise.
- Say “no comment.” (Try: “That’s not a question I can answer.”)
- Repeat a negative framing in your answer.
When questions get tough:
- Maintain control and composure.
- Don’t be defensive.
- You do not need to answer hypotheticals – “I’m can’t speculate.”
- Be honest if you don’t know the answer.
- You can reframe questions.
- Always feel free to contact communications for help vetting the interview request! (Can contact CAL Marketing Office at media@cal.msu.edu and MSU University Communications at media@msu.edu).
Traps to avoid:
- In response to leading questions: “Your assumption isn’t true,” then, state a key point.
- The uncomfortable silence. Make your point, then stop talking. “Did you have any other questions?”
- The non-question. “Did you have a specific question?”
When you can’t quite answer:
- “I can’t predict the future, but I can tell you what happened in the past.”
- “I’m not in a position to make specific recommendations, but I can tell you some policy options…”
- “I can’t answer that definitively at this point, but I can tell you have to minimize risk…”
Bridging to your messages:
- “I think what you’re really asking is…”
- “That speaks to a bigger point…”
- “Let me put that in perspective…”
- “The real issue here is…”
- “I don’t know about that, but what I do know is…”
- “What’s important to remember is…”
- “Just the opposite is true…”
- “That’s false…”
At the end of the interview:
- “The most important thing to remember is…”
- “The real issue is…”
- “We’ve talked about a lot today, but it boils down to three things…”
- “Let me make one thing perfectly clear…”
Media & PR contacts at MSU
- College of Arts & Letters Marketing Office: media@cal.msu.edu
- Beth Bonsall, Jenny Jimenez
- MSU University Communications PR: media@msu.edu
- Alex Tekip, Sydney Hawkins