The Command and General Staff College hosted a Media Panel for class 12-01 today. The panel was comprised of Ms. Kimberly Dozier from the Associated Press, Mr. Tom Bowman from the National Public Radio, Ms. Nancy Youssef from the McClatchy’s News Group, and Mr. Jamie McIntyre a Professor, Lecturer and Military-Media Analyst. The panel represents decades of experience in covering military affairs and an intensive knowledge of the Middle East Region. The media panel convened in the Eisenhower Auditorium at 0830 on August 11, 2001.
The panel started with each member providing a brief overview of their work with the military after which they were led through a question and answer session. Topics ranged from the use of social media in news coverage to real or perceived bias in reporting and media savvy leaders to the relationships each reporter has with their editors. The overarching theme for the panel was the simple desire to gain access. One panel member commented that if the military member just returns the phone call or email it goes a long way to creating a positive response. When asked what advice they would give a Public Affairs Officer, the sentiment was the same…get us access to the people we ask to see, not those you want us to see.
Other key pointers that the panel provided were to always set the stage up front, by this I mean that the interviewee and the interviewer must determine before the interview begins what is “on the record”, “off the record”, and what is provided as background information and the definition of each based on their different perspectives. The lack of setting these clear guidelines is one of the reasons the panel believed some military officials get into “trouble” with reporters. Ultimately, as Mr. McIntyre said the media and military are “fenemies”. The media can be our friend or our enemy; they are there to report the story, which may not always be what the military views as a positive response.
After the two hour media panel each of the four participants visited with two staff sections to provide more insight into their views of military and the media. Although the panel did not have advance knowledge of our class preparation they hit on a number of topics that related directly for our assigned reading providing direct relevance to our classwork.
The media panel and the interaction they had with the students was insightful and an excellent way to start the year with quest speaker presentations. Click to view photos of the Media Panel on the CGSC Flickr page.
Submitted by Major Rebekah S. Lust, USA, 8A Class Adjutant
11 Comments on "CGSC Media Panel, 11 August 2011"
This media panel for Class 12-0, in my eyes, proved to be a beneficial experience. The panel was comprised of an array of journalists (Kim Dozier – AP, Tom Bowman – NPR, Nancy Youssef – McClathcy News, and Jamie McIntyre – Professor/Military Media Analyst) who all had a great deal of first hand experience dealing with the U.S. Military. Of the key points that the panel members made, I feel that the comments regarding using “on” and “off” and providing “background” information were the most beneficial for the military officer audience. I also thought that the break-out sessions with individual staff groups following the panel proved to be extremely useful.
Briefings on public affairs and media training led me to believe that face to face Speaking, is becoming a lost art in our military.
My wife had a recent experience at her unit the other week that resonated with what LTG Brooks referenced about there being “too many whisperers” in the military today. The art of talking face to face is fading fast in our society, and becoming a growing issue in our military today. Mass media outlets allow individuals to exchange opinions and gossip at lightning-fast pace, with little to no filters to what is published.
Last week my wife posted answers to a quiz on army leadership for her MSL 101 freshman ROTC class. When posting the answer to the 7 Army values, she mistakenly put Leadership instead of Loyalty on the answer sheet. By the next class period, students in her class had posted to the Cadet Command website, “How jacked up and stupid their instructor was, not knowing the 7 Army values.” Not one student in the class had bothered to call, e-mail or text her to see if the answer was a mistake. By instantly exchanging information on the web, they globally published their beliefs and gave my wife no opportunity for rebuttal or explanation.
There are several concerns I have with the current communication tendencies we use in society and the military today. We often prefer a text to a conversation, and people love to post their opinions with no identity or consequences to go with it. The biggest thing that concerns me is how do we police this in the military? There are not enough hours in a day to search the World Wide Web for all the posts and blogs about the militaries day to day operations. I’m interested to see if there is anything currently in place to regulate the whispers and gossip, if not, any suggestions on how we manage this information flow?
Although the panel possessed a wide range of media expertise, I felt as though much of the group presentation centered around individualism. Once the panel broke out into the small groups, it was fairly easy to get detailed answers from the panel representative. What we have studied here CGSC during our media panel training is that leaving open-ended answers to questions can sometimes lead to uneasiness from your audience.
What I would recommend for the future is possibly adding a military PAO to the group panel, this way we as military officers are able to compare the differences of what civilians push out through media channels and how our military responds. It would also assist us if and when we are approached by the media as leaders in the future.
I felt this was an eye opening panel. I applaud the members ability to be dedicated to covering the mission that we in the military have been tasked with; however, I am not convinced that they have a true profession. They as a media panel were not convincing as to the standard they had to maintain as a professional. The excuse that an editor was able to take their field reporting and alter it doesn’t sit well for the men and women (military and civilian) that put their profession on the line when a reporter prints on small bites of their comments. Further, I believe that the panel was very honest that they are out for one thing and that is their story. They aren’t there to tell your story and this further enforces our need for media training on how to properly get out our command messages in order to ensure our voices are heard and that at the lowest levels we are heard for our hard work and continued dedication. Lastly, I believe that everything is for the record in our line of work and that was reaffirmed by the panel more than once.
“Know the difference between on the record, off the record & background.” To be honest, advice was not what I expected to hear from our guest speakers at the start of this forum. Rather, I expected a “dagger throwing contest” so to speak between the officers of our ILE class and the media panel, particularly those of us who have had negative experiences with the media in the past. Not only did I find this to be a “golden nugget” of advice that I will always keep close to heart as I deal with the media in the future, but it shaped my attitude into a desire to gain as much as I could from this forum to better prepare myself for future media operations as an Army Officer. Overall, it was a positive experience for me, with great “takeaways” and insight that inspired me to pursue formal media training both here at Fort Leavenworth and in future assignments. A definite sustain for the ILE curriculum!
One alibi to add was the recommendation by one of the panel members to always keep your own personal recordings of your interviews. This not only helps you to validate what the journalist quoted/wrote about you, but also serves as a record to protect yourself in the event of a misquote/misinterpretation so that the mutual supporting goal of the truth is always attained.
MAJ Boyce Buckner, SG8A
I’ve held the opinion that media training needs to be provided to the lowest ranking soldier on up since my first deployment in 2004. From the embedded reporters to the visiting reporters, it’s not uncommon for them to want to talk to the junior soldiers and leaders. Typically they are the ones out conducting the “exciting” missions that make for better stories. We need to prepare these soldiers a little better than we currently do. The majority of the training I’ve seen conducted revolves around power point slides or, if you’re lucky enough to have the resources, mock interviews with PAO reps. I think we should try and take that a step further and involve non-Army personnel in the training. Bring in local media resources prior to deployment. Practice less than friendly interviews. Talking to non-Army media personnel is a lot less comfortable for many and not all reporters are more friend than enemy. If we want to get the Army story out accurately we need to practice practice practice and not forget our troops talk too!
Maj Nichole Vild
SG 8A
In this age of instant information, it is possible for the news anchor to receive and report on the outcome of military operations as soon as they happen. This is often before a command team has had opportunity to asess and review the operation for itself. Though the embedded reporter takes the role of providing that delivery of information as their duty, it can and does act counter to maintaining morale and a certain degree of operational security in the big picture. Modern technology allows for this capability and will continue to, but public opinion is a very malleable entity and can be directly guided by the news feeds.
MAJ Gary Stone SG 8A
The media panel hosted by Command and General Staff School class 12-01 was an excellent opportunity for students to engage with current members of the media who cover military, intelligence, and national defense issues at the Pentagon and in the field. Following opening comments, students posed a variety of questions to the panel. Unfortunately, the question and answer time was limited and not all of the students had an opportunity to ask their questions.
One of the more interesting points that arose was provided by Ms. Nancy Youssef from the McClatchy’s News Group. Youssef is McClatchy’s chief Pentagon correspondent and has extensive experience covering the Central Command Area of Responsibility. Her parents are from Egypt and she is a fluent Arabic speaker. She provided a nuanced explanation of the difference between the English and Arabic versions of Al-Jezzera news. Youssef explained that the English version is fairer while the Arabic version is more inflammatory.
The insight provided by the panel members enhanced the lecture, readings, discussion, and practical exercise of the C141 and C142 blocks of instruction.
Mr. Jason Heeg, SG8A XO
The 11 August panel was a great forum to get a sneak-peak at the thinking of members of the media that we as Majors may, or already have dealt with in our careers. While many of us have had training in dealing with the media, it has usually been from a public affairs officer (PAO), or their representative. While classes taught by PAOs are helpful, hearing it from “the horses mouth,” validates and gives us confidence in what is being taught by PAOs. Some of the things I took away from the panel are, that it is best to treat your discussions with the media as “for the record.” Furthermore, the panel overwhelmingly offered that the story will be told and that the more involved we are in the process, the better the story will be told. Gaining the perspectives from those in the industry will further allow us to better formulate our media engagement plans in the future.
The media panel’s perception of the Pentagon as a source for “theme park” versions of war events (Tom Bowman, National Public Radio) makes the case for battalion-level officers to become savvy in the ways of media interviews. So long as the mainstream media believes it is being fed a less than accurate depiction of on-going military operations, legitimate news agencies will feel compelled to deploy their correspondents forward to battalion and lower formations to determine ground truth. Bowman and other media panelists expressed the need for military leaders to provide news reporters greater access to the Soldiers and Officers who can best help the media tell the story.
“You can’t sit in Bagram and tell people what’s going on in Afghanistan,” said Bowman. “It’s like sitting in Disneyland and telling people what’s going on in Florida.”
If our leadership heeds this call then we would be well served as Majors to schedule our appointment with the Advance Media Training program now.
MAJ Shawn Hubbell, SG 8A