What I learned my first time on live TV | Hacker News Reader

What I learned my first time on live TV

neiljoglekar.com

35 pointsnjoglekar17 comments

Something I learned after many cases of being asked to rush down to studio for a live appearance to talk about some security event: Have your 30 sec response ready to go. The talking head newscaster is going to completely screw up the question. Ignore the question and say something smart. Otherwise you are playing into their hands and will say something as stupid as he/she did.

Love this. Answer the question you want to answer.

Politicians do this all the time and we never get any useful answers out of them as a result. Not sure it is an improvement.

Another maybe-negative use of this strategy, as conveyed to me by a famous professor:

If you give a technical talk and afterwards someone asks a question you don't know how to answer, instead answer a similar question you can answer. Then the audience will think you just misunderstood the question, rather than thinking that you didn't know the answer. This strategy won't work if the questioner is persistent, but usually they aren't.

> This strategy won't work if the questioner is persistent, but usually they aren't.

I think it may only seem to work to the person answering the question. Having sat in on many talks, it's often noticeable when a person answers a different question vs genuinely misunderstanding.

In astronomy, at least, I'd rather admit I didn't know the answer than try to fake it by answering a different question.

> 5. Know which camera you are supposed to look into. There were a few of them and I wasn’t sure where to be looking.

Interesting. I have recently had talking-on-the-tv-news training, and they drummed into us that you should not ever look directly at the camera. Instead, you should look at the presenter, and address yourself to him/her. Above all, don't glance around the room, because it makes you look well dodgy.

I definitely settled on just speaking to her but it's hard because there are so many screens in front of you. Hopefully I wasn't dodgy.

Haven't we all seen people being interviewed on TV looking straight into the camera? One should think everyone knows how awkward that looks.

-> Whenever there is a camera, try to ignore it and just talk to the person with the questions

I like how you used a live TV spot, which I never would have seen to create a blog post which I did.

2. Plug, baby plug. Don’t assume that people will know what your website is or how to buy your product. In our case, they did not show the website address on screen so make sure to say it out loud.

And yet there is no link to the website, or the kickstarter project. Well there is a link. It was hard to find. It was in the first paragraph. I missed it. Goes to show that blue underlined links really do work the best.

Blue it is, thanks for the feedback. Like I said - still much to learn.

What? Why is this posted here? (maybe for people hoping to promote their business on tv news? As a former reporter, i'd advise anybody hoping to do so against hoping to do so. it's a real shot in the dark as to whether youd get tv -- or newsprint -- time for your business. some news outlets have business segments or sections, but they can be really hard to get into too, especially for technology companies)

Because someone thought it was interesting enough to submit, and others thought it was interesting enough to vote up. Pretty simple, really.

Wish I would have had these pointers before my first appearance! Very helpful tips! It definitely helps if you're talking about something you're passionate about too!

They have a team behind switching around for the best shot. Look at the interviewer.

Yes exactly. It’s the host’s job to talk to the audience. Unless you have something to specifically say to those watching, you’re better off focusing on the host and letting the director do their thing. It’s awkward when guests look at the camera but are responding to a question from the interviewer.

You guys did a great job, thanks for sharing the tips.

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