Bridging techniques

Vincent T. Covello, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Risk Communication

One of the skills that a spokesperson needs is the ability to bridge. Bridge from their message to their overarching message, bridge to other aspects of the message they would like people to know. Critical to bridging is to know first of all what your overarching message is. What message you want to get back to over and over again is part of the communication with the journalist. Which means you have to think yourself in advance of the interview "What key point, what key messages do I want to get across to the public if in fact I was totally in control of this story?" Which means you'll want to think about what those messages would be and then use the opportunity of the interview after you've answered the specific questions to bridge back to your overarching message. For example you could use statements such as "I'd like to get back to my main point," "The key overarching message here is this," "What I'd like to really emphasize is this," "What's really important for people to know is this." By using these bridging statements you can bring the reporter away from the specific question back to the overarching message you would like people to hear.