i'm ready for my closeup

did you know that i have graced two magazine covers? my mother proudly displays both on the wall right next to her front door, in the foyer.

i also gave an interview to the local news when i was in tenth grade. i won a writing contest for my school district, one that they hold every year for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. as a winner, i was asked to read my selection at the city's MLK Day service, along with my elementary and middle school counterparts. as we left, a reporter grabbed me to ask a few questions for the evening news. she sat me down and began asking questions. i thought the whole thing was just prep work--she never told me when the camera started rolling. all of the sudden, she was thanking me for my time. later i watched the footage on tv.

so unless you'd also like to count my time writing the academics beat for the South Meck High School yearbook, that about sums up my media experience.

however, after today, i will be ready when the world wants to hear my opinion.

the beatitudes society gave us the amazing opportunity to participate in a media training day. the workshop was presented by auburn theological seminary. its goal was to equip us, as faith leaders, to effectively give interviews (for tv, print, radio) that communicate a particular message and faithfully represent the organizations with which we affiliate ourselves.

okay, so clearly, right now, i am not fighting off the reporters with a stick. but we're also not necessarily talking about only NPR or CNN here. local news shows and papers are also a platform for communication. and people care what religious leaders have to say, especially on hot button issues. and, religious leader or not, we all know how one media misfire can ruin a whole career.

but having this kind of media training isn't just about making a career and a name for myself. it's about redefining Christianity in the public eye.it's about being relevant. it's about being a positive voice in the faith community and showing people that Glenn Beck isn't the only one who has something to say. we are the ones we've been waiting for, our trainer reminded us--how poignantly related to the point in my last post about making choices and living intentionally (and prophetically) right now!

we have a notebook full of great tips for preparing messages/statements and giving interviews. but the bulk of our day was spent actually composing a core message for a mock interview, and then giving that brief interview on camera. i chose to speak about child hunger. we were to have three supporting points for our core message: one religious, one social, and one hopeful. within the framework of those three there should be scriptural references, personal stories, and statistics. i planned a web with points about feeding the five thousand and manna, about food waste and school lunch programs, about bread's belief that we can end hunger in our time, about tax credits. the personal story i decided to include came from my time with YouthWorks last summer--we had a boy in Kids Club who ate the craft he had made out of a raw potato because he was hungry.

then you get in front of the camera, and try to remember it all: to repeat your core message, to lead with a story, to deflect off-topic leading questions, to smile and not fidget, to make eye contact...and (specific critique for yours truly) to not call the interviewer "sir." ("but we're from geawwwwgia," i retorted in mine and my fellow southerner's defense, doing my best miss scarlett impression.)

it was challenging, but exhilarating! our trainer did an expert job of trying to throw us off our message (as real reporters are wont to do), so it was such great training for internalizing and intimately knowing what it is that you have to say to the world, and then making sure it gets said: keep your own agenda, don't say anything that you don't want to say, be in control, be confident.

so if the ajc or the post ever give me a call, i'll know what to do. until then, i'll practice being articulate for my professors and for my umc candidacy interviewers. knowing what to say and how to say well will probably come in pretty handy then, too, i'd imagine. gotta pass seminary and ordination boards before becoming a bigwig, highly sought-after, darling-of-the-media religious leader, you know. it's all about keeping those ducks in a row :)