Media relations

Tips for working with the media

If you have been contacted by the press, remember to take a moment to decide if you would like to provide information or if you would like to decline an interview.

When a reporter calls

• Feel free to say you will call back at a different time

• Consult with your communications and marketing manager, CEHD communications, or your URelations contact

  • We can help you:

    • Understand a reporter's background

    • Learn how the story connects to current events or University activities

    • Anticipate questions, risks, and other issues

    • Consider others who should be contacted

Questions that a reporter should answer

• What is the deadline? 

• What publication, program, website, or blog are you working for?

• What is the story about?

• Why do you want to interview me?

• Who else are you interviewing?

• Do you need a photographer or video?

• How much time is needed?

How reporters work

• You have what they need: Expert information

• They operate in a fast paced, 24/7 news cycle

• Many work by themselves and have multiple daily deadlines

• In-depth knowledge on a topic is rare. You will often have to educate reporters on the topic

Interview tips

• Make your point, give proof, give an example

• Build a bridge back to your key points and repeat them often

• Don't answer questions that stray away from your expertise

• Reporters often ask if you have anything else to add at the end of an interview. Reinforce your key points.

• For media training, contact your communications and marketing manager

University Privacy Policy

In light of recent conversations with academic leaders and faculty about navigating difficult conversations, often with students, surrounding very public issues that may intersect with very important data privacy laws, University Relations worked with the Provost's Office, Office of General Counsel and others to draft Navigating Privacy document [PDF] (available at z.umn.edu/Navigating_Privacy). 

The document provides basic guidance about laws and policies surrounding public data, what is generally defined as private information, and what obligations we all have to protect information legally defined as private or protected. 

The intersection of all of these circumstances can be particularly challenging when an issue is playing out broadly in the media but the University and its employees can share little about it due to privacy concerns. This document can help faculty and staff, at minimum, understand these challenges and the considerations at play in those moments.

Emergency info

Many faculty are contacted by reporters for their expertise. However, if local reporters or TV crews simply appear on campus and walk into offices or even classrooms "fishing" for comments to include in adversarial reports, faculty and staff do not need to reply to such queries and, if students are involved in such fishing expeditions in your presence, please make clear they have no obligation to respond either. This is not appropriate "reporter-reportee" etiquette and the reporters should be instructed on the appropriate process, which is to contact the News Service office.

The News Service main line number is 612-624-5551 and their 24-hour pager is 612-880-3056.