In any event, your choice both of the words you speak and how you say them are determined less by a conscious intellectual process than by an unconscious manifestation of attitudes. Therefore, to give effective interviews, you must mobilize not only your intellect, but your emotions as well. If your attitude is positive, you increase the chances that your media interview will be positive.

The following four "axioms" of media interviews are practical tools designed to help you develop the mind-sets that will best enable you to give effective interviews. By adhering to these axioms, you will present yourself as honest, forthright, self-assured and credible.

Axiom #1: The interview is an opportunity for you to get your message across to your key publics.

Explanation: Whatever your organization's goals and objectives, they can only be attained with the help of other people. What employees, prospective employees, investors, market analysts, regulatory authorities, politicians, civil servants, voters, taxpayers, suppliers, customers, the media and a host of other groups think of you and how they act on their perceptions will affect the success or failure of your organization. And whether we like it or not, the media play a vital role in the development of public attitudes. So every time a reporter calls, you have an opportunity to influence your publics in ways that will help you attain your organization's goals and objectives.

Your attitude: "I look forward to the interview, and I welcome the reporter's questions."

Axiom #2: You and the reporter have a "coincidence of self-interest."

Explanation: Your self-interest is to convey messages that will induce your key publics to act in ways that will enable you to attain your goals and objectives. The reporter's self-interest is to produce a news story that will attract readers, listeners or viewers - and hence advertisers. In this way the reporter helps the media outlet attain its corporate objectives and, at the same time, helps advance his or her personal career objectives. Your self-interest is different from the reporter's. But for each of you to attain your respective objectives - influencing key publics and producing good news stories - you must do the same thing: namely, convey information that people want to receive. This means that your relationship with the reporter is cooperative, not adversarial.

Your attitude: "The reporter and I are on the same side, because we must work together for either of us to attain our objectives."

Axiom #3: The reporter has an absolute right to ask you any question in any manner that he or she chooses.

Explanation: This is not a moral or ethical pronouncement, but a pragmatic one. If you allow yourself to judge the propriety of a question or of the manner in which it was asked, eventually your displeasure, annoyance or anger will surface, either in your choice of words or in your nonverbal communication. Many of those who see, hear or read the interview will interpret your displeasure, annoyance or anger as an attack on the reporter for having uncovered whatever it was the question referred to. Thus, instead of discrediting the reporter's inference, you will be substantiating it. In general, you will appear untrustworthy, evasive and unlikable to the very people upon whom your well-being depends.

There are two prohibitions dictated by this axiom. First, never respond judgmentally to a reporter's question or to the way in which the question was asked. (The corollary is that you should always deal with the substance of the question.) Second, never negotiate with the reporter either before, during or after an interview. Absolute rights are nonnegotiable; so you cannot ask the reporter to curb the scope or nature of an interview.

"I welcome all questions. "

Axiom #4: You have an absolute right, and a firm moral and pragmatic obligation, to answer each question according to your own dictates, not the reporter's.

Explanation: If you allow your statements to be influenced by the reporter (that is, if you allow the reporter to put words into your mouth), then your answers will be untruthful. This happens most often when an interviewee worries about what the reporter is thinking and might ask next, and does not think about the most appropriate answer to the question that was just asked. To apply this axiom most effectively, your focus during the interview should be on your agenda, not the reporter's.

This does not mean, however, that you may ignore a reporter's question and, instead, spew out key messages no matter how irrelevant to the question they might be; nor does it allow you to deflect a question that raises sensitive points that you would rather avoid. Doing either of these will anger both the reporter and the audience and make you appear evasive and untrustworthy. On the other hand, effective preparation will enable you to respond directly to the reporter's questions while weaving in a key message that is relevant, beneficial and newsworthy.

Your attitude: "I am informed about the issues, I am prepared for the interview and I welcome any question the reporter might ask."