When School Marketers experience the Difficult Media Situation comment to the media truthfully.

You do not need to give all the details but offer what is needed for the media enquiry allowing for privacy and ethical considerations.

This may be just a simple, “Thankyou for the enquiry. We will get back to you shortly.”

If the school decides to act on the request itself there are a number of approaches which should benefit the school:

 Be available for an interview in person or over the phone.

 Be positive and in control during the interview

 Appearance is important eg appropriate demeanour, dress, stance

 Control the backdrop for television or newspaper photo to get the positive visual message out that you want

 Answer all questions, but turn the answer to what you want to emphasise

 Having 3-4 key points is a good approach

 State the obvious, such as:
o no one was hurt, or unfortunately some people were injured
o damage to the property was significant or minimal
o the most important thing is that no-one was hurt, only property damage occurred and that this will be repaired as soon as possible or
o unfortunately some people were hurt and the school is currently doing everything possible for those people eg ambulance was called immediately, there will be ongoing medical assistance, school counsellor involved for those directly affected and others at school, other counsellors are coming from sister schools, etc.
o the school / principal is sorry that this unfortunate event occurred, all procedures have been followed and that everything possible will be done to ensure that this won‟t happen again. If updating procedures is necessary then this will be done immediately.

Follow-up

Be available to keep the media updated as the situation changes or developments are made.

Written by Bryan Foster author. This is an extract from the section 'The Difficult Media Situation' in the 'School Marketing and the Media' chapter in School Marketing e-Handbook: Easy to Use Guide to Market Your School