TJ Walker explains how to craft messages so reporters will quote them: a "message" is the abstract idea, while a "sound bite" packages that idea into a short, quotable phrase. He asserts that most sound bites derive from 10 speech patterns and highlights three especially easy ones to use—emotion, absolutes (must/never/always), and rhetorical questions—while noting that clichés and attacks also tend to be quoted. He offers his book Media Training Secrets for detailed examples and framing advice.
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How to speak in sound bites. You can talk to a reporter for an hour and not get a single quote in a story. You can also talk to a reporter for 60 seconds and have five quotes end up in a story or five sound bites on the evening news. What's the difference? What's the difference between a message and a sound bite? A message is the idea that you have that you're trying to communicate. It's the basic concept at an abstract level. The sound bite is the way you package it to make it irresistible to a reporter so that when they're sifting through all the video or audio or their notes, they pull that part of what you said and edit it into the final story. So if a reporter talks to you for 10 minutes and a thousand words come out of your mouth, maybe only eight words or 10 words get into that TV broadcast, radio, podcast, or that newspaper or online site. How do you know in advance what eight words will get in and what 992 words will be thrown away? It's very simple. If you step back for a minute and look at the structure of all the quotes out there and all the sound bites, and then package your messages accordingly. What I have found in doing this for more than 30 years is that all quotes, all sound bites come from 10 speech patterns. They're either analogies, they're cliches, they're bold action words, they're emotions. There's 10 of them. If you want all 10, I'm happy to send you at no charge. No, my book, Media Training Secrets. I'll send it to you at no charge. Just email me tjediatrainingworldwide.com and it will give you in depth examples of all 10 and exactly how to frame them. Of all the sound bite elements, three are a lot easier than the other seven for most people. The first one emotion. Just say how you feel about your message. Reporters aren't allowed to talk about their own emotions, but they love quoting you and other experts when they bring an emotion. So that is really, really simple. Absolutes are really easy. All you have to put is a must, a never, or always in the sentence, and that makes it quotable. Rhetorical questions are easy. All you have to do is put a question mark at the end. It makes it more interesting. Now others that people accidentally fall into cliches, and it could be good or bad, depending on whether it's your message attacks. I'm not telling you to run around attacking people. What I am saying is, if you do attack, reporters will quote you. Reporters are not allowed to attack people directly, but they love quoting you and me and others attacking. You've got to realize what the reporter's job is. The reporter's job is to take a set of ideas on something new, make it more understandable to the readers, viewers, listeners, than the reporter. Just putting it out, straightforward typing it or saying it to make it more memorable and more insightful. So it's not enough to simply have a message and stick to a message. You've got to package your message with these quotable soundbite elements.
