Experts

Wouldn't life be so much easier for all of us if we had our own personal expert at our disposal? If a problem appeared, all we would have to do is reach out to our expert and before we could say "pundit," solutions would in our back pocket. Better yet. Those answers would be articulated by our expert to whoever needed to hear them. Nice. Unfortunately, in today's media-obsessed climate the answers, regardless of how correct they might be, would not necessarily make the problem go away. This is because nowadays the expert not only needs to know what they are talking about but they need to both look and sound good, too.

After all, in many cases we are talking television - a visual medium where looks count for much. This reality presents public relations practitioners with a two-fold challenge: a keen awareness that the job of expert is more complex then it used to be and that training experts to be credible is more challenging than ever. When people watch television they prefer watching images that are pleasant to the eye and ear. If the person in front of the camera does not do that, then the odds of viewers accepting or being open to them are reduced. Thus, experts need to be as viewer-friendly as they are knowledgable.

This is media training is so important. A person may have a firm grasp of a topic, and even be well-spoken, but if they are not comfortable with speaking on-camera or to into a microphone, then their effectiveness is reduced. Is that fair? No. Shouldn't a person be accepted on the merit of their words rather than the superficiality of their looks and voice? Of course. But, hey, we are talking the 21st century now. People switch channels faster than the pulling of a trigger at the OK Corrall. The punch line here is that media training needs to be part of professional communicator's skill set. The times in which receive information demand it.