Media training day

All the interns were at Eccleston Square today for a bit of media training. We were off to a good start, as we began with Mass with Mgr Andrew Faley. 


The first session saw Maggie Doherty and Alexander de Forges, from the Catholic Communications Network gave us the inside track on the papal visit, they described what their average day was like and how they dealt with hot topics like the Ordinariate, the new Missal and World Youth Day. Alexander gave us some tips on how to be effective communicators.


Jack Valero popped in too after our coffee break to give us a taste of Catholic Voices training - it was actually quite hard to succintly present the Church's stance on an issue and remain positive. He asked us to pick one of these 'neuralgic' issues and come up with a short speech to portray the Church's point of view in a positive way. Most importantly he told us to know our faith inside-out so we could take part in informed debates about the contentious issues. 


Next we had a go at listening to James Abbot in the radio studio, followed by political communications expert and Professor in the subject from Madrid, Karen Sanders. We discussed how we use media, the 
purpose of it and the relationship between politicians and the media.


We ended with a session on social media, taking a look at what more we can do as interns to share what we do. More tweeting and blogging me thinks! 

Posted in: bishops' conference,catholic voices,ccn,communications,eccleston square,intern,media,media training,professor,training