Tony's perspective is that the health department's technical personnel were not well prepared to act as spokespersons, especially to different cultural and ethnic audiences. Even if you are a technical person, there may be occasions where you are asked to speak to the public through the media and it's important to have basic spokesperson skills. This is especially true when answering media questions as many of your target audience will get their information from the media.

In another activity you will have an opportunity to see how your body language is perceived by different cultural groups and how to interpret reactions.

The purpose of this first activity is to give you some practice in identifying good and bad techniques for a spokesperson answering media questions. You will be given a set of video clips, each showing a spokesperson being questioned about the virus outbreak. In each clip you will see either an effective way to answer each question or the way that will likely land you in trouble.

Your job is to identify whether the technique is a good one or a poor one. Be sure to review the resources on effective techniques for answering questions in "Learn More About" before beginning this activity.

Instructions

This is a timed activity. On the next screen you will see eight video clips. Click on a video to start it. As it is playing, and as quickly as you can, give it the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down," revealing whether you think it shows the right way or the wrong way to answer the question.

Once you've made your decision the video will stop playing. Go onto the next video. The timer will run out in two minutes. After your time has run out or when you have made a decision on each video, you will be allowed to see the explanations.

When you are finished, close the activity window and click on the "How Did I Do?" icon to see feedback on your answers.

Summary

The object of this activity was to give you some practice in identifying the most effective ways to answer questions from the media.

If you had any difficulty with this exercise you should go back and review the resources in "Learn more About."

Always remember the best way to prepare for questions is to write out anticipated questions and answers to them. Rrole playing with a colleague is also a good way to practice answering questions. This will give you a chance to develop the skills for answering impromptu questions “on your feet.”

A software product called "Visual Communicator" is another tool that you can use to practice your spokesperson skills and messages.