Media training analysis: The Times’ Best Pictures of 2024
It’s a typical end-of-the-year round-up piece, but as leading providers of media training courses, we were particularly interested to look at The Times’s feature on its best pictures of 2024.
What does it tell us about what makes a good media story?
It might sound obvious and that’s because it is. Pictures are visual. This is important when you’re doing media interviews because, according to research by 3M Corporation, we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Psychologists have also discovered that the human brain manages text in a linear fashion whereas it deciphers images that are presented to it simultaneously – again, speeding up the absorption of information.
Media training courses for lawyers
In our media training courses for lawyers, for instance, we point out that so much of the language we use relating to understanding is visual. Is that clear? Do you see what I mean? Do you get the picture? Encouraging law firm partners to tell stories enables them to paint pictures in a way that grabs the attention of journalists and increases the chances of lawyers getting more positive coverage than their competitors.
We worked with one senior partner in a magic circle law firm who, for instance, painted us a great word picture. It involved taking a letter containing the offer made by their client to the office just down the corridor where the takeover target’s lawyers were sitting. It was a wonderfully vivid piece of picture painting and, as our media trainer journalist explained during the role play media interview, it would have worked really well in the final report.
Media training courses for fashion brands
We also provide media training courses for fashion brands and it’s fascinating to see how the creative directors that we train understand the value of painting pictures when they talk about the inspiration for their latest collections.
The participants on our media training workshops focussing on sustainability for fashion brands often have a light bulb moment when it comes to picture painting. They realise that they can tell a journalist that they check on conditions in the factories of their suppliers and that they do everything they can to reduce waste. But if they give an example of this by painting a vivid picture, then they really bring the idea to life – and prove their sustainability credentials.
It’s not just lawyers and fashion brand executives that can use picture painting in media training. We also provide media interview training workshops for tech companies. Again, it’s great to see the participants during the authentic, role play media interviews of that we put them through, understanding that if they talk us through how their app benefits the user by painting pictures of what that user will see and what they can do they bring the story to life and can gain better media coverage.
Why are the particular images mentioned in The Times piece so newsworthy? Politicians, pop stars, actors, business executives and campaigners – almost every photograph features human beings. At the start of our media training courses for law firms and our media interview workshops for fashion brands we explore what makes a media story. This is useful to help interviewees understand what is going on in the minds of the journalist when they are being interviewed. It’s great for preparation and confidence building if you know the nature of the beast that you’re dealing with.
Media skills workshops
In our media skills workshops we emphasise the importance of the human. This means involving people in stories and examples. It also means mentioning your own experience as a human being whenever possible.
When we provide media training for tech companies, for instance, we’ll always emphasise the importance of the user. The tech might be fascinating but how will it make the life of a business or an individual better? Helping the participants on our courses to articulate this in natural language and painting pictures really helps them to deliver better media interviews.
Another raw ingredient of a strong media story that we explore in our media interview coaching is the importance of the unusual. A photograph of a human being isn’t going to make the cut to get into The Times’ list. However, if that human being is unusual for whatever reason or if they are an ordinary person undergoing an unusual experience then the media will be interested. This is true of every photograph in this collection.
Two of the photographs, by the way, feature animals and children. Despite the old showbiz adage of not working with animals and children, if you can include some of these beings in an example that is relevant to your key message that will also work very well.
Media interview training
Finally, disgraced celebrities, controversial politicians and riots – it’s worth noticing that so many of the photographs focus on bad news. Again during our media coaching workshops we look at how bad news, scandal and trouble will always grab the media agenda. This might be scary and depressing but, as we explained to the people that were training to do media interviews, there are ways in which you can exploit the media’s love of the dark side to your advantage. You might want to flag up a problem, a threat or danger and then provide a solution for it. This works particularly well for our media training for law firms, for instance.
If you’d like to know how to create better images in order to generate more and better media coverage for yourself, your colleagues or your clients, then please come and talk to us about media training for law firms, media training for fashion brands, media training for tech companies – and so many other organisations.
We’ll put you in the picture about what we offer.
Media training courses
Come and talk to us about how we can help your organisation to communicate more successfully. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.
