Selecting an Aviation News Media Consultant as a Spokesman
ACE Website Article: October, 2011
Selecting an Aviation News Media Consultant as a Spokesman.
Reporters are on a relentless search for news aviation consulting experts and media aviation consulting firms. The statement fits with a rule in journalism: a news story must do one of three things: either entertains people; include useful information: “news you can use;” or quote an expert. By the way, there’s a similar rule for news feature photography; where an excellent picture is one with that includes: breaking news, a child, an animal; or hopefully, all three things together, and now back to the point.
Some of the best news stories are built around airline consultants, airport consulting firms, aviation consultants, aviation experts who are not only popular but interviewed around news breaking “live” events; as the event is taking place in some cases. A good example would be the U.S. Airways emergency landing in New York known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
In this case, the most credible expert to provide commentary would be someone that: is a current Airbus 320 captain, works for a different airlines other than US Airways to avoid a possible conflict of interest issue, is easily accessible to reporters, trained to be on-camera, appears professional and can provide detailed, complex information accurately, objectively, and simply. The spokesman should have a depth of aviation experience equal to the flight crew and be capable to convey complicated information succinctly. All those attributes translates in the public’s eye trustworthiness.
The experts at Aero Consulting Experts (ACE) believe they know something about what the media wants. For one — it’s the aim of ACE as an expert witness practice to provide expert commentary whether it’s in a newsroom or a courtroom. The news media business fits the ACE mission: to represent the aviation industry as accurately as possible and approach the work with the most objective analysis that can be provided.
Not only is ACE well versed with the issues and trends of flying but how best to present that information in a serious and respectful manner. To that end, ACE created a media training program. The training’s aim is to prepare people to be national spokesman; and is targeted to pilots, expert witnesses and lawyers so that they could speak comfortably on a wide range of aviation topics. The technique uses video feedback and message development exercises to build an individual’s confidence as well as his presentation skills.
The training was developed out of the background and experience of one of ACE’s policy experts, AC Carrier. AC was a former aviation reporter for The Arizona Daily Star and an associate editor for The Air Force Times. Later, AC, become a press secretary to two aviation experts serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The aviation consultants at ACE have been called on several times to provide expert commentary on a number of news broadcasts. To see how the aviation consultants at ACE assisted the media, from local TV news in Los Angeles, KNBC, to national cable news on FOX NEWS, please visit the Blog page at aeroconsultingexperts.com. The pilots who make up the ACE consultant team include among others an airport expert, aviation consultant, aviation expert, airline expert, and an aviation law expert. Above all else all of the ACE pilots are regarded as an air safety expert in their own right as a result of their work as, commercial airline pilots, aviation experts and aviation consultants.