Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone!

Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone!
ADVANCE SLIDE Jennifer Jones Public Affairs Specialist USDA Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center, Boise, Idaho

Working Successfully with the News Media
Now that you’re up to speed on incident communications protocols and procedures, I’m going to pick up where Director Harbour left off and give you some tips to help you succeed when you are the right person to provide information and interviews to the news media. And, in keeping with his presentation, I think you’ll find these tips helpful in all kinds of communication settings. For those of you who’ve had media training, this will probably be a review. For those of you who haven’t, I hope it will motivate you to attend a session because I think you will find it one of the most valuable trainings you ever have. Before I begin, I want to reinforce Director Harbour’s point that what we’re doing today is part of an effort to improve fire communications, not fix them. We have an average of more than 10,000 fires per year on National Forest system lands and communications go well on the vast majority of them. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible. But, as journalism and technology change, it’s necessary and appropriate for our approach to fire communications to change too. ADVANCE SLIDE

The Nine Steps of Preparing for a News Media Interview
Step 1: DO YOUR HOMEWORK What is the media outlet? With fire season already in full swing in some areas and rapidly approaching in others, we want to make sure that the need to prepare properly so that you are successful in working with the media is top of mind. Today, I’m going to walk you through a 10 step preparation process that I recommend that you go through each and every time that you do an interview. I know 10 steps sounds like a lot. But, this might only take 10 minutes if you’re doing an interview on a familiar topic with a local media outlet. It might – and should – take longer if you’re doing an interview about a topic that you’re rusty on with a national media outlet. In other words, the higher the stakes of the interview, the more time you should spend preparing. We need to be sensitive to reporters’ deadlines and provide them with information as quickly as possible but it’s even more important to ensure that the information that we provide them with is accurate and that takes preparation and time. Step 1 in the process is do your homework. If you’re not familiar with the media outlet, find out a little bit about it before you agree to provide information or an interview. This is particularly important with the proliferation of online news media, blogs, cable tv, and satellite radio. ADVANCE SLIDE

Step 1: DO YOUR HOMEWORK What is the media outlet and who is the reporter? What experience has the reporter had covering the USDA Forest Service or wildland fire management? Who else is being interviewed? What questions do they want to ask? On this slide are some other things that you’ll want to find out about the media outlet, the reporter, and their story. They are important because you will prepare and speak differently to someone who’s been covering the Forest Service and fires for 20 years than you will to someone who is writing their first story about the agency. Don’t expect a reporter to give you an exhaustive list of their questions but if you can get a general idea of what they want to talk about, it will help you identify the most appropriate spokesperson, gather accurate information, and develop answers. ADVANCE SLIDE

Step 2: DECIDE WHO SHOULD GIVE THE INTERVIEW Effective spokespersons have: News media training and proven ability to give a good interview Knowledge of the topic A desire to give interviews Step 2: Decide who should give the interview. Listed on the slide are some things to consider in deciding who the spokesperson should be. As you’ve heard from Chief Tidwell and Director Harbour, public information officers, incident management team members, and others working on incidents are to speak to the news media about the incident only. All other inquiries about fire related issues are to be directed to the Forest public affairs officer who will determine whether they can be addressed locally or whether they are national and should be directed to me here at NIFC. Ensuring that we have the right person at the right level of the Forest Service speaking to the media about issues is critical to our efforts to provide accurate information and to get better at fire communications. ADVANCE SLIDE

Step 3: DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVES Step 3: Define your objectives. Reporters go into interviews with objectives, you should have some too. What do you want to accomplish by doing the interview? Your objectives will have a big impact on what you say and how you say it, so be sure you know what they are. ADVANCE SLIDE

Step 4: IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCES Step 4: Identify your target audiences. Of course, when you work with the news media, you are speaking to the general public. But, also try to identify a couple of specific groups of people that you want to communicate with through the news media to reach your objectives. These might be homeowners in the wildland urban interface, local business owners, or recreationists. ADVANCE SLIDE

Step 5: DEVELOP A FEW KEY MESSAGES Correct Clear: Simple language, no jargon/acronyms Concise Credible Concrete Colorful (only if you can pull it off!) Step 5: Develop a few key messages. If you go into an interview expecting to just answer a reporter’s questions, you are wasting an opportunity and you may be setting yourself up for disaster. Have a few key points that you want to make to your target audiences to achieve your objectives. A good place to start in developing key messages is with the 2010 Fire Season Themes developed by the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group at NIFC and with the USDA Forest Service 2010 Fire Season Key Messages. Both are now posted on the Fire and Aviation Management intranet site and we’ll provide you with the URL to that in just a bit. On the screen is a list of characteristics of good key messages. At the top of the list is correct. It is vitally important that we provide accurate information to reporters and that is why we need to ensure that we have the right people at the right level of the Forest Service addressing reporter’s questions. It’s also very important that your key messages are concise as the length of the average quote, or soundbite, these days is less than 10 seconds. ADVANCE SLIDE

Objective: Increase awareness among recreationists about steps they can take to prevent wildfires Target Audiences: Campers Key Messages: Drown your campfires with water until they’re so cold you can touch them with your bare hands Before we go further, here is a simple example of how to “connect the dots” between objectives, target audiences, and key messages. ADVANCE SLIDE

STEP 6: Anticipate questions, especially tough ones Step 6 – Anticipate questions, especially tough ones. Make a list of all the questions that the reporter is likely to ask you. If you are ready for tough questions, you won’t be caught off guard if you get them and if you don’t get them you’ll do better on easy questions too. ADVANCE SLIDE

STEP 7: Develop an answer for each question Question-Answer-Bridge to Key Message And But However In addition... The real issue is... I’d say it differently… Step 7 - Develop an answer for each question on your list, following the guidelines we’ve been discussing and incorporating your key messages. One of easiest ways to do this is through a technique called bridging that we all use everyday to make our points in conversations. Reporters usually don’t ask questions in a way that makes it easy for you to deliver your key messages. So, if all you do is just answer their questions, you can do the whole interview and never get any of your key messages out. So, instead, answer their questions and then deliver one of your key messages by bridging to it with words and phrases like the ones shown on the slide. You can use this technique very effectively when you get asked a question that you don’t know the answer to; when you get asked a question that you’re not the right person to answer; and when you get asked a difficult question. ADVANCE SLIDE

BRIDGE WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW AN ANSWER What states are the crews working on this fire from? I don’t know, but I will be happy to get the answer for you. What I can tell you is that local, state, and federal agencies all work together to suppress wildfires. Here are three examples. First, if you don’t know the answer to a question, just say so and tell the reporter you’ll help them track it down. Don’t guess or speculate. This is critical to our efforts to provide accurate information to the media. Then, use the opportunity to bridge to a key message. ADVANCE SLIDE

BRIDGE WHEN YOU’RE NOT THE RIGHT PERSON TO ANSWER What is the Forest Service doing to replace its aging airtanker fleet? As a public information officer assigned to work on this incident, I am not the right person to address national aviation issues, but I’ll be happy to put you in touch with someone in the Forest Service who can. Meantime, I want to emphasize that we’re using airtankers here to slow the growth of the fire on the east side so that firefighters can get in there to build fireline. Second, If you’re not the right person to answer a question, in accordance with the guidelines we’ve discussed, just state that and tell the reporter you’ll help put them in touch with the person who is. Again, take advantage of the chance to bridge to a key message. ADVANCE SLIDE

BRIDGE WHEN ASKED TO SPECULATE If you could manage the fire all over again, what would you do differently? For fires such as this the Forest Service has a robust after-action review process and a strong commitment to lessons learned. Fire managers make the best decisions they can with the information they have available. What's really important to focus on is what we're doing now to ensure the best response to wildfires in this area. Finally, if you get asked to speculate on hypotheticals, make a brief, general statement, and then bridge to a key message. If you get asked this particular question, please bear in mind that one of the reasons that we are really good at fire management is that we have formal review and lessons learned processes. Those are the proper places to consider how we can continue to do things better. Let’s work through the review processes we have. We can never control the questions that reporters ask us, even when we ask them to provide them to us ahead of time. But, we can always control our answers and bridging is an important technique that helps us do that. The key is to being factual, accurate and transparent. Engaging in hypotheticals will not help us get the important life saving facts about the fire to the public. ADVANCE SLIDE

STEP 8: Rehearse the interview Step 8 – Rehearse the interview. Practice the answers you’ve developed to the questions on your list and practice delivering your key messages until you can say them in your sleep. Rehearse with a voice recorder, video camera, or another person. The mirror works well too. ADVANCE SLIDE

STEP 9: Put it in writing Useful fire related websites and resources: Incident specific information Fire news Incident Management Situation Report NICC statistics and summary report Significant fire potential outlook FAM Accountability Report Ready, Set, Go Finally, provide reporters with some information about the Forest Service and fire in writing. This will increase the chances that their story will be accurate and that it will help us achieve our objectives for the incident. Your written information should be brief, no more than a page or two, and might include your key points; supporting facts and figures; background information; and URLs of fire information websites. On the screen is a list of a few websites that you might find useful. In closing, I want to emphasize that investing the time to complete each step of this preparation process every time you do an interview will dramatically increase the chances that the story is accurate. ADVANCE SLIDE

2010 Incident Communications Toolkit
USDA Forest Fire and Aviation Management Intranet Site National Multi-Agency Coordinating (NMAC) Group 2010 National Fire Season Themes USDA Forest Service 2010 Fire Season Key Messages USDA Forest Service Fire Communications Guidance Delegation of Authority Suggested Language Chief Tidwell ‘s Message Transcript Tom Harbour PowerPoint Presentation Jennifer Jones PowerPoint Presentation Link to USDA Forest Service New Media Resource Guide I also want to let you know that we have posted the presentations that you have seen today, as well as a number of other documents pertaining to fire season communications, on the USDA Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management intranet site. Finally, I want to let you know that we are planning a national news conference on fire season preparedness with Secretary Vilsack, Chief Tidwell, and possibly representatives of partner agencies. We are shooting for the last week of May and hope to have the date finalized this week. We will be talking about the outlook for fire season; what the Forest Service is doing to get ready for fire season; the resources we have available for fire suppression; what citizens need to do to protect their homes and property from fires; and how all of the agencies work together in fire management. We would really like for field units to participate by hosting similar events. We will be providing more information on this either later this week or early next week. ADVANCE SLIDE

Questions and Answers Jennifer Jones jejones@fs.fed.us
Now, Chief Tidwell, Director Harbour, and I are going to take a few questions and I am going to turn it over to Becky Rine to explain how that is going to work.

Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone!

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