As a former TV presenter, Maggie Barry shouldn’t need much media training advice. She knows what journalists look for. So she must have known that her attack on the childless Jacinda Ardern’s credibility in commenting on paid parental leave would make the news. From a media training standpoint, the use of conflict or the hint of an attack is a great way to get publicity. If that was Barry’s aim, she certainly succeeded. But this is unlikely as the subsequent publicity...

Media training is something high performance athletes should undertake so they can maximise their own reputations and that of their sports when in-front of the World’s TV cameras. It will be plain to see who is prepared for the media onslaught when the Olympics get into full swing. Those who have been through media training will appear conversational with reporters, and not be afraid to express their true feelings about their performance. This is what people want to see. But many...

While media training is all about mastering media interviews, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett showed this week that there are times when requests by journalists can and should be turned down. Mrs Bennett’s daughter Ana resigned from her role at the Waipareira Trust, which is locked in a legal battle with the Government over the decision to withdraw funding for the provision of the Family Start programme. The battle is being fought by Mrs Bennett’s own Ministry. Anna said she would...

Comments made by new Labour MP Megan Woods on Twitter this week show how important media training skills are for high profile social media users. The Wigram MP said on Twitter after the vote to sell shares in state assets that: ''Hitler had a pretty clear manifesto that he campaigned and won on. Question: does this make what he did OK?'' This was clearly an inaccurate and offensive statement, but it does bring up some interesting points. Firstly, because Twitter only...

Sky City made a fundamental media training error by failing to appear on One News on Tuesday night. By not fronting up, company management lost control of the Bible story. The angle of the One News story was that this poor old woman was likely to be sacked for carrying her Bible to work. But this was never a possibility, as the Sky City spokesperson said in The Herald on the same day. But this was only known by Herald readers....

The Greens have been very conspicuous in the media over the last few months, but they still haven’t faced a major media training test. Much comment has been made about them overtaking Labour as the major opposition, but from a media training perspective, they have never had to rigorously defend their policies in the public arena. For example, while Russell Norman constantly criticises the Government in its dealings with China over Labour conditions, Tibet etc, an end to our trading relationship...

While it is debatable whether Hekia Parata was solely responsible for the whole class size fiasco, it’s been a baptism of fire for her when it comes to testing her media training skills. So how did she do? As a relatively new Minister, she did okay. The main problem she had was the message she was trying to communicate. From a media training perspective, she was reasonably successful at getting her message out. The problem was that very few people accepted...

Education Minister Hekia Parata made a fundamental media training error this week by failing to apologise when it became clear that Intermediate Schools could lose up to seven teachers under the new class size modeling. The policy was intended to see schools lose no more than two teachers, but it soon became clear that intermediate and middle schools could lose far more. This was clearly a mistake and not what the Government intended. When approached about the issue by media, Ms...

The decision by Hell Pizza Management not to appear on the Sunday programme last week was a typical media training mistake. Two franchisees were complaining about why Hell had revoked their franchise licenses and also how they had been treated in the process. The big mistake made by Hell was refusing to be interviewed for the programme. From a media training perspective, this was the worst thing they could have done. This is because the whole story was devoted to the...

A point made by John Key this week illustrates why leaders from all walks of life need media training. When suggesting the media had been tougher on him since the last Election, he said he could not control the 'bit they cut out', or the 7 second sound bite that made the six o'clock news. This is a common complaint. While leaders are usually good communicators, the media interview is like no other conversation. That's because you may speak to a...