top of page

Excercise 1

Watch and analyze the following videos and respond to the following:

 

  1. Actively listen to each question asked. What is the nocciola of each?

  2. Analyze the answers. Did the interviewees answer the question asked?

    • Did they respond to the nocciola or to tangential issues?

    • Did they repeat certain key messages?

    • Did they effectively craft memorable sound bites?

    • Did they come across like credible sources?

  3. What worked and what didn’t in each interview?

  4. What would you have done differently?

  5. What is your impression of the interviewee after the interview?

Exercise 2

As you listen to each of the five interviews, pay special attention to the interviewer in the clips.

  • What is the style of the interviewer?

  • What interesting journalistic techniques do you notice being used?

  • How do the interviewees handle the reporter?

  • What kind of rapport is created between the two?

  • How would you handle a tough interviewer? How about an ambivalent interviewer?

  • What could you do to nurture positive relationships with journalists in your diocese?

Exercise 3- Debate with Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry and Archbishop John Onaiyekan 

Watch the following 5-part video (about 50 minutes total). It’s a pretty colossal defeat for those supporting the Church. Or is it?

  • What arguments were most effective on both sides of the debate?

  • What “zingers” did you walk away remembering?

  • Which arguments didn’t work?

  • What could the side that was pro-Church have done differently?

  • What do you think about the question itself hat Intelligence Squared chose to focus on for the debate?

  • In your opinion, who won the debate?

  • What can be done for damage control after an event like this?

Exercise 4

As you watch each interview, press pause each time a question is posed and before you hear the interviewee’s answer. Now, answer the question in your own words. Then, listen to the interviewee’s answer and compare and contrast.

  • How did the interviewee do in answering the question?

  • What examples of phatic communication did you hear?

  • Were the key messages clear?

  • What worked and what didn’t?

  • How would you have made your key messages clearer?

  • How would you respond to these same questions with a soundbite answer?

bottom of page