Do you ever notice that while you are getting older, your local television and newspaper reporters, especially in small media markets, are only a year or two out of college?
During a presentation at the Wisconsin EMS Association conference, Megan Mullholland, an experienced PIO and crisis communication consultant, explained to attendees the traits of local media — television, print and radio — and what to expect from each.
One of her observations, rooted in beginning her own career in local media and working as a reporter for 8 years, is that local reporters are often young and inexperienced. Their average age makes it likely that as a PIO, department spokesperson or department chief, you’ll be communicating news, crisis communications and public service messages to someone who might have as much real-world experience as a new EMT school graduate.
With that in mind, here are a few tips to optimize media coverage of your department.
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Develop their skills
In Wisconsin, EMTs are required to have at least 10 patient contacts after obtaining a training permit and before obtaining their certification and license. A journalism school graduate may have only reported 10 news stories during their schooling, all under the watchful eye of an instructor and without a real-world deadline.
Given their overall lack of experience, help develop their skills, just as you do a new EMT, by giving them straightforward stories about a new equipment purchase, a training program completed, personnel hired or another personnel story. Also, look for opportunities to suggest safety and injury prevention safety, like fireworks safety before the Fourth of July, cold injury prevention just before a major cold snap, or hands-only CPR after a successful cardiac arrest call.
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In this win-win, you help develop their skills, while also building rapport and EMS knowledge. The journalist will be better prepared to cover a major event involving your service and you’ll know from experience that they will get important messages into their story.
Use the words you want to see in the news
You speak the language of public safety. The reporter does not. When you share your story, use the specific terms and descriptive language you want to see in the news report in your responses to questions.
If you say, “We drove the patient to the hospital in the ambulance.”
Don’t be shocked to see a story that reports, “An ambulance driver took the patient to the hospital.”
Instead try, “Our highly trained paramedics began to care for the patient at the incident and continued to provide specialized, advanced care to the patient during transport to the hospital.”
Answer your question
Prepare for any media opportunity with the three points or messages you want to deliver. Mulholland encourages her clients to not just give three facts, but to mix facts with non-facts. The three points might be:
- Facts of the incident, problem or opportunity
- Why people should care about the information you are delivering
- What you want to happen or your desired outcome
With that in mind, listen to the reporter’s question and then answer their question along with the question you want to have been asked.
It is also common for reporters to end an interview by asking, “was there anything else you’d like to add?” or “Is there anything we didn’t ask that you’d like to make sure we know?” Use this opportunity to reiterate your three key points.
“If you’re repeating it, it must be important,” Mulholland said.
Media coverage is a tactic, not a goal
Going live for the evening news, being featured in a top story or quoted in the newspaper is not a goal. It is a tactic to accomplish your service’s goals. Goals for your service might include the following.
- Goal: Reduce death and suffering. Media tactics to accomplish that goal include safety and prevention messages about hands-only CPR, Stop the Bleed, drowning prevention, seatbelt use, CO detector installation and checking smoke detector batteries.
- Goal: Sustainable community support and funding. Use media opportunities to explain how your service is funded, the real-world impact of that level of funding on equipment, training and response capabilities if funding is inadequate. But don’t simply dwell on the shortfalls of funding. Use media opportunities to explain how funds are being used to expand your department’s capabilities with a drone as a first responder program, community paramedics to help people receive care at home or body armor reduce the risk of injury to first responders.
- Goal: Recruit new personnel. Nearly every EMS agency needs more personnel. Use the media to tell the message of the great people in your department who have chosen to serve their community and help others. Their path to success, dedication to others and spirit of service may inspire others to apply to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Announcements about training opportunities, training completed, awards and promotions can all help fill a local news slot while also including a key point of welcoming others to join your organization.
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Social media posts are news
If your agency has a social media presence, local news reporters will use it as a source for news. You’d be surprised at how little information is needed for a 15-second TV hit or a 200-word web article. The reporter might not even contact you for more information.
With that in mind, give them the information in the social media post they need to make a news article. Here are the 5 Ws of Journalism, also known as the inverted pyramid:
- Who is the story about?
- What is the story about?
- Where did the story happen?
- When did the story take place?
- Why did it happen?
These two Facebook posts, along with the About us section, from the Northwoods EMS district, post 1 and post 2, answer the 5 Ws and are enough for a brief news story.
VILAS COUNTY, Wis. — The Northwoods EMS district began responding to 911 emergencies on January 16 at 8 a.m. Five personnel are available 24/7/365 to respond to emergencies to the towns of Boulder Junction, Presque Isle, Manitowish Waters and Winchester in northwest Vilas County.
“Thank you to everyone for all the support,” Northwoods EMS District announced in a Facebook post. “You have had our backs and now we have yours.”
Social media posts that answer the 5 Ws set-up your service for regular news coverage.
Provide photos and videos
You’ll get the best coverage and strengthen your relationship with local news reporters if you provide high-quality, high-resolution images and videos. Include multiple photos or video clips in social media posts. Offer to demonstrate patient care techniques to accompany a story or even drive down the apron of the station with lights and siren to create b-roll for current and future news coverage. If the news is about your service, you want the images and video to be of your equipment and personnel, not some generic stock images from the internet.
You should also have high-quality headshots of personnel in their duty uniform on hand to quickly share with local media. These images can accompany news reports about training, service awards or promotions. But these images are also important if your service experiences a line-of-duty-death or significant injury. This image, which will likely be widely shared locally, regionally and nationally, is part of how you’ll honor and dignify your member’s service to the community.
Work with the media for shared success
We don’t expect new EMTs to lead complex calls, know EMS jargon and write perfect patient care narratives. Instead, we ease them into taking lead on straightforward calls, answer the questions they either aren’t asking or don’t know how to ask yet and give them the resources to deliver the best information to other care providers. Do the same with your local news reporters and you’ll improve your media coverage while also achieving your service’s goals.
