Your media kit and a full practice interview

Write your bio, update every sheet, run and record one full mock interview, review it, and export and print the media kit.

1. What the media kit holds Understand

The media kit is the set of sheets you have filled in across this manual, kept in your browser: what you asked a reporter, your main points, your practice answers, your statements and your log. It is your own record, for the next request. This chapter adds the last piece, a bio (a short written description of who you are, for a reporter to use), runs one full practice interview, and exports the lot.

The kit lives in this browser on this device. Nothing leaves it unless you export it or use the share link. The export file re-imports only into this manual, so it is a backup and a way to move the kit to another device, not a document to hand to a reporter. If you plan to share it with anyone, read the warning in exporting the kit first.

2. Your bio, and how your name appears Understand

A reporter, producer or host may ask for a short description of you, or may write one from what they find. A bio you wrote yourself gives them the facts as you want them said. SciLine advises that if many reporters ask the same thing, you write a statement with your name and title as you want them to appear (SciLine, "Five tips for scientists handling media requests"). Convention

Name, title and how to say it

Before the bio, settle three lines on the bio sheet: your name exactly as it should appear, how to say it, and your title or role. A former TV producer writing for a media-training firm advises asking how you will be introduced and how your name will appear on screen, and checking spellings. The on-screen name and title is called a chyron (Throughline Group, Five Ways to Ace Your Media Pre-Interview). That source is one practitioner's experience. For how to say your name, write it in plain letters ("roo-EES"), not a phonetic alphabet. Whether the outlet uses your wording is the outlet's decision. Ask the authority

Two lengths

Write the bio at 50 words and at 100. The lengths are our conventions chosen to fit a caption or an introduction and a short profile; ask the outlet which it wants. Convention

1. Write the bio in plain sentences. Use the words you would say to a neighbor.
2. Count the words. Paste the bio into the answer box on the answer timer; it shows the word count.
3. Cut or add to land on the length. Cut adjectives first.
4. Check every number and name against your facts sheet. A number in a bio goes out of date; date it or leave it out.
5. Put the public contact only in the contact field. A home address, a private phone number or anything about a child does not belong in a bio.

3. Bring the sheets up to date, and keep a routine Understand

The sheets are only useful if they are true. Read each against its source before the mock interview.

The routine for the next request

When the next request arrives, you do not start over. Use the quick start, which has four parts: ask, decide, points and practice. Then open the kit and replace what is specific to the new request: the request sheet, the audience, and any numbers. The practice answers and bio carry over. Convention

4. The full mock interview Understand

A mock interview is a practice interview in which someone, or a timer, plays the reporter and you answer as you would on the day. The University of Florida's extension guide to media interviews recommends a mock news interview with someone playing the reporter, recorded so you can review and critique it (University of Florida IFAS Extension, Media Interview Skills). The CDC's introduction chapter says repeated practice is the best way to prepare spokespeople for tough questions (CDC, CERC: Introduction). Both are guidance, not measured results.

Choose five questions

Open the practice question deck and filter it to your format and situation. Pick five: three likely questions, the one you dread, and a closing question. If you answered a question in Practice answers that gave you trouble, pick it again.

With a partner

1. Brief the partner: ask each question as written, wait for the whole answer, ask one natural follow-up, and do not rescue you.
2. Set up as the real interview will be: by phone for print; in a quiet, furnished room for radio and podcasts; with the camera at eye level for video. The setup checklists list each.
3. Record the run with your phone, and run all five without stopping.

The CDC's spokesperson chapter suggests practicing answers in phrases of 10 to 20 seconds, practicing rapid-fire questions, and rehearsing stopping when you are told to stop (CDC, CERC: Spokesperson). Ask your partner to try one fast follow-up and one interruption.

Alone

If no one can play the reporter, write the five questions on cards, shuffle them so you do not know the order, and set a phone timer to chime every 30 seconds. Read each question aloud, answer, and let the timer run. Record the whole thing. A recording of yourself reading the question and answering it is the solo version of the same run. Convention

Baruch College's speech-clarity guide gives a way to find your own speaking rate: record yourself answering a prompt for a minute, count the words, and repeat with several prompts, because your rate varies by topic (Baruch College, Speaking Rate). The five answers give you five data points. Use the answer timer's rate tool on them.

Run it in your format

Match the run to the interview you expect, so the recording shows how you sound in that setting. The table lists what guidance says for each format. Print and online, Radio and podcasts and Video and TV cover each in full.

If your format is not known yet, run the print version and add the radio rule. Each point is one source's advice; the producer's instructions for your interview come first. Ask the authority

5. Play it back Understand

Play the recording once without stopping, then once with the playback checklist. The checklist asks, for each answer: did the first sentence answer the question, did the main point come early and again later, would the answer make sense alone, did you avoid "as I said," did you stop when you had answered, and did numbers come with their source. It also asks about pace and filler words. The University of Florida guide keeps answers for recorded TV and radio to 20 seconds or less, and the CDC suggests a key point in 30 seconds and under 90 words. Those are targets from guidance; see them beside your own timings and decide what fits your format.

Then write two notes in the playback notes and in the debrief sheet: what worked, and one thing to change. Redo the weakest answer once, aloud. The CDC's chapter says to learn the ideas, facts and anecdotes rather than memorizing answers, which tends to sound rote, so change the first sentence and keep the idea.

The University of Florida guide also advises reviewing earlier recordings of yourself before an interview. Keep this one, with the date, on your device. This manual does not store recordings.

6. Export and print the kit Understand

Open the media kit page. It exports every sheet and your setup progress as one file, imports the file back into this manual, and prints every sheet. Save the file somewhere you back up, and note the date in its name.

7. See it See it

For the 100-word version, Dana adds a sentence on who can sign up, a line that there is no board, staff or parent organization, a note that the membership figure changes as people join, and a pointer to the library's public email address. She does not include her home address, which is also the library's location.

She picks five questions from the deck for print and a routine topic, and records herself on her phone.

Her two notes on the log: what worked ("first sentences answered the question"), and one thing to change ("give the number with its date"). She redoes the number answer once and exports the kit.

8. Practice Practice

Minimum: a 50-word bio, five recorded mock answers, two notes on the log, and one saved kit file. Time: about 75 minutes. Materials: your phone for recording, the question deck, a timer, and a person to play the reporter if you can. The sheets that receive your work are the bio sheet (essential in this chapter), the playback checklist and notes (essential), and the debrief sheet (essential). The 100-word bio is optional on a first pass.

1. Write the bio at 50 words and count it. Fill name, how to say it and title.
2. Check the other sheets against the table in bringing the sheets up to date.
3. Pick five questions and run the mock interview with a partner, or alone with cards and a timer. Record it.
4. Play it back against the checklist and time each answer. Write two notes on the log.
5. Redo the weakest answer once.
6. Export the kit and save the file.

9. Your interview Your interview

10. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does the bio hit its word count, with each number dated or sourced?
• Is the contact line public, with no home address or private number?
• Do the message, facts, practice and log sheets match what is true today?
• Did you answer five questions aloud and record them?
• Does the interview log carry two notes: what worked, and one thing to change?
• Is the kit file saved somewhere you can find it?

Worked example

Dana's bio counts 50 and 100 words in the timer, uses only numbers from her facts sheet, and gives the library's public email address and not her garage's address. Her run produced five recordings with timings, and her two notes name a fix she can test in the redo. Under these assumptions the kit is ready for a first interview. The assumptions are that her numbers are still current (a recount settles it) and that the real questions resemble the deck's (the real call settles it).

Common mistakes

• Writing a bio that lists everything. Fix: cut to the length and keep what matters to this story.
• Playing the reporter's follow-up too gently. Fix: ask your partner to ask one hard follow-up.
• Reading answers from a script. Fix: keep the ideas and say them aloud.
• Exporting the kit and sharing it without a read-through. Fix: read the warning above.
• Taking one good run as proof. Fix: it is one recording.

What is still unresolved

This chapter cannot tell you how a real interview will go, what the outlet will use, or how it will introduce you. It cannot tell you whether your numbers are still current. You settle that by recounting; the outlet settles the rest.

11. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The kit file is saved, and one recorded mock interview has two notes on the interview log.
• My 50-word bio is on the bio sheet with my name, how to say it and my title.
• I checked the message, facts and practice sheets against what is true today.
• I wrote the 100-word bio. (Go deeper; optional)
• I ran a harder second round and compared the two recordings. (Go deeper; optional)

Have you just done what this manual teaches? If it is still fresh, we would like to hear about it. We are looking for volunteer guides to add a few short passages from their own experience to this manual. Write to guides@learnthings.online for the details.