Want to do media interviews on climate change, but not sure you are ready?
The GSI has begun a series of media training seminars, designed to prepare willing members of the GSI community (students and staff) to speak to the press about climate change on behalf of the GSI. Everyone at the GSI has enough knowledge to answer general questions on climate change. It is up to each and every one of us to communicate the climate emergency and empower people to act!
The GSI at the University of Exeter is a global leader on climate change, and subsequently gets many requests to lend its expertise to the press for TV, Radio, news publications and online news articles. The goal of the media training sessions is to bring together a larger, more diverse group of volunteers from the GSI community to share their perspectives and insights on climate issues with the press and wide audiences. The volunteers, along with Alex Morrison, Press Officer at the University and GSI Assistant Director Raphaëlle Haywood will become part of an informal support network to lend each other support, encouragement, and advice.
This new interactive, hands-on seminar series is being run in collaboration with Alex from the University’s Press Office. Alex will be sharing tips on how to handle media interviews on a wide range of climate topics. In the first session Alex and over a dozen attendees discussed what to expect and some of the practicalities of speaking to the media. Future sessions will include more specific discussions, including how to answer a question when there is uncertainty around a topic, and how to create a compelling quote for media outlets. Attendees will also have the opportunity to take part in practical, confidence-building activities, such as ‘mock’ interviews.
GSI students and academics can volunteer to be called upon to answer short-notice press requests for the GSI, as well as offer quotes to respond to existing news articles and stories.
If you are interested in becoming a media spokesperson for the GSI, you can join the next media training sessions on Wednesday 15th May and 19th June. These sessions will be in-person only (on Streatham campus). Email infogsi@exeter.ac.uk to register.