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| Andrew Blum |
The recent Providence, R.I., press conference announcing the death of the shooter in the Brown University mass shooting showed how difficult it is to make these media events come off totally without a hitch.
In the case of this one-hour-and-16-minute press conference, it was standard when it came to local, state and federal officials making comments about a multi-jurisdictional news story. But what was not standard was the breaking news element of the December 18 presser, and the fact that Brown officials also joined with several levels of state, local, and federal government in speaking about the death of the suspected shooter.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley first spoke briefly as did Providence police, the Rhode Island Attorney General, the FBI, ATF, the governor of Rhode Island, the state police, and Brown’s president and police chief.
What was a little odd from a PR point of view was the fact that the mayor, a 46-year-old former political consultant, then acted as the person pointing to reporters and calling on them to ask questions of the assembled group of officials.
Watching this, I wasn’t sure if this was by design or by happenstance. Was there a PR person at the presser, and why wasn’t he or she the one calling on reporters? Maybe I was nitpicking in thinking this, bit it struck me as a little strange.
One thing that made it hard to follow the press conference if you tuned in late was that there were no lower thirds on the TV screen identifying who was speaking. That was likely on the TV coverage end of things and the speed at which the press conference was put together during a breaking national story. Or someone felt it wasn’t needed. I always like lower thirds so viewers can tell who is talking.
But I have to give the officials credit – they held the presser shortly after it was confirmed that the suspected Brown shooter, Cláudio Valente, was found dead December 18 in a storage facility in Salem, N.H., two days after he had killed himself. He was a suspect in the December 13 Brown shooting which killed two people and injured nine on the campus, as well as being a suspect in the separate Dec. 15 death in Massachusetts of an MIT professor.
My PR comments here in no way diminish the horror of the shooting or the victims of what the was the latest mass shooting incident in a gun epidemic we are experiencing in the United States.
As I watched the news conference, I also heard no discussion of the gun issue. And I did not hear any of the officials say they were offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims. The latter is a good thing because saying that doesn’t solve the gun problem.
A presser like this can be a bit chaotic as the story of the shooting and the investigation kept breaking. Additionally, there will always be questions that perhaps the press conference speakers weren’t expecting or didn’t want to address.
Some of the Q&A at the presser seemed to get a bit testy when it came to questions about social media during the investigation of the shooting, as well as questions about video surveillance and whether or not there was a lack of it in the Brown building where the shooting took place. These went partially unanswered -- probably due to the ongoing investigation and perhaps liability issues.
Next time you hold a press conference, it is good to plan ahead, and try to think of what the press may ask.
Press Conference Planning and Presentation Tips
In choosing a location ask yourself it is a good location for audio, photography, and video? Is indoors or outdoors better?
Have a PR person at the news conference to call on reporters and manage the whole event.
Make sure there is a mult box at the podium for broadcast outlets, allowing for radio and TV to sync into the presser’s audio feed with their mics.
Try to make sure all the speakers at the press conference have been media trained beforehand. If not, hire a media trainer.
Remember, there are no dumb questions. Answer them as best as you can. If you can’t answer them, say so, explain why, and let the PR person follow up with reporters later.
You can’t control what questions the press will ask, but be ready for ones you didn’t expect.
Don't emulate some politicians who have criticized reporters on the spot for asking certain questions or for questions they don’t like – such as Donald Trump and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. All that does is piss off reporters.
Have a practice run of the press conference beforehand if possible.
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Andrew Blum of AJB Communications is a PR consultant and media trainer who has directed proactive and crisis PR for a wide range of clients and issues, and has done PR for more than 50 authors, professional and financial services firms, NGOs, startups and PR agencies. Email: [email protected] or X: @ajbcomms
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