The Media Spotlight Can Hit At Any Time

There may seem little connection between Britain’s Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle booking into a rehab centre and relatives of those missing on Flight AF 447 waiting for news.

Both stories shared the front pages this week and were reported with equal gusto. Look at the photographs of relatives as they arrived in Rio and in Paris to find out about their loved ones. They were instantly surrounded by television cameras, microphones and photographers. Journalists asking them how they feel and what they have got so say.

None of us know when we might suddenly be the subject of a story and how you cope with such intense media pressure when your emotions are so raw is a trick few of us rehearse.

Of course the relatives of Flight AF 447 neither sought media attention or wanted media attention. But they are at the centre of a major event and each story they have to tell will be a harrowing human interest tale that the media will lap up.

Susan Boyle on the other hand sought out fame by entering the Britain’s Got Talent competition. However, I doubt in her wildest dreams she expected to gain the worldwide media attention that she sparked. The result, for someone who has lived a quiet life in Scotland, is a shock to the system that requires specialist help in a clinic.

Businesses and those in the public eye should prepare for the days when suddenly the media focus is on them. Preparation will at least mean they have thought through the likely moves by the media and that preparation needs to include some mental strength to realise what the media requires and why they are suddenly interested in you.

In some ways the media behave like an out of control class of children when there is a big story to chase. Knowing how to calm them down and get them into an orderly position to impart information to them is the key to good media relations at such times.

Of course that is not a role for the relatives of Flight AF 447 but those around them need to provide them with that support in handling the media as well as the counselling and medical help they need to cope with their loss.

For Susan Boyle it is essential that those who are getting rich as a result of her fame put some of that money into paying media advisers to help her through the transformation from an unknown to an international famous face.