Discussion: Useless interviews

How to say nothing in a 5 minute interview: World of O featured an interview with Minna Kauppi after the Venla Relay. Granted that English isn't her first language, but as Finland's top female orienteer, I'd have thought she would have had some media training.

Isn't that what "media training" teaches, talk smoothly, say nothing, maximize cliches?

Maybe I am confusing fast Finnish women, but wasn't Minna's "excellent" English actually the problem, albeit entertaining, in her post relay interview at WOC 2006?

Yes, Minna was the one with the colorful interview last year. It was pretty funny at the time but I also wondered whether her coach would ever let her speak publicly again. Doesn't make her seem very professional. Of course, it is a sport, not a business, so maybe I should just lighten up.

I thought the interview was ok.

It seemed to me like she had something to say -- she wasn't sure if she was near the lead, she made some big mistakes, then she saw Skogsfalken and IF Thor ahead of her and realized she still had a chance, at the end of the race she was a stronger runner though the others were orienteering better.

It looks to me like she's doing a press conference that WoOTV videod rather than an interview specifically for video. For a post race press conference that seems reasonable. The clip I've seen is only a little over a minute.

I viewed the 1+ min interview after my first post. My reaction was similar to Spike's. In addition, I appreciated her candor about being out- orienteered by the others.

For what it is worth, Suzanne Petersen, the Norwegian golfer who laid an F bomb on live international TV a few years ago, just won the LPGA championship two weekends ago. Does this change Minna's WOC 2007 odds?

I think people are less inhibited with vocabulary outside their mother tongue, perhaps not feeling the real "weight" of the words. I noticed this with myself anyway.

I'll take candid color over canned "professional" responses any day, so I guess I'm not the target auduence.

I wish I would have heard the interview from last year. Minna did a fine job on this interview. At the Tampere WOC, one of the gold medalists described the terrain as shit, which put an unintended hush over the crowd.

There was probably a long media session in Finnish and at the end someone ask Minna to "say something in English" of "describe her race or feelings in general". Those are quite hard to respond to after you've gone through it all already once.

After the WOC-relay last year Minna translated a Finnish proverb that isn't so bad in original. All in all, MInna is always positive, cheerful and outspoken. Quite the ideal athlete to interview.

And no, I do not think any elite orienteers get media training....

I thought she came across like a real superstar! It was really obvious at the race that everyone wanted her to win which is really nice.

We (the British Squad) had some media training once which was hilariously not specific

A word which is a taboo word in one language isn't necessary so taboo in translation (or even not in translation). I recall once arriving in Paris to be greeted by billboards saying 'F*** SIDA' (without the asterisks), presumably put there by the French anti-AIDS campaign (SIDA is French for AIDS).

I'm a little sceptical about the role of media training in this particular context. Most of the training I've come across comes from two perspectives - either one of trying to promote your message as much as possible, or alternatively to try to avoid saying something that the media would like you to say but you would rather not (or your employer would rather you didn't). Neither's especially relevant here.

As Australian readers will know, I've had a fair bit of experience of dealing with the media in my work, but fortunately almost all of it has been in a context where I can be myself and just explain what's happening as best I can. It's a bit disconcerting, though, when you get asked halfway through an interview "Does that mean you think the Deputy Prime Minister has got it wrong?" (said Deputy PM having just made a statement I didn't know about which wasn't consistent with what I'd just said).

I did the "interview". It is correct as jwolff says: It is the last part of the press conference, and after 10-15 minutes of Finnish, which I did not understand a word of, the press conference was about to end. I then asked her to describe how she had managed to beat the others in the forest, and I think she answered well enough (if not, I would not have put it up).

I think this kind of live pictures/interview tells you a lot more than just the same lines written down, as you see her state of mind, and connect better with her...

For those of you who have not seen the interview, you can see it here:

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v646507FezHdmyN?c=wootv...

Good work, jankoc!

Pretty good interview, given the situation. Much better than I could have done in French, for example.

For some reason, I seem to wind up an interview target. I've been on local TV a dozen times and one of those was picked up in a national piece. Every time I cringe. I'm generally good at public speaking, but the combination of no real audience (I can't convince myself the camera represents a whole bunch of people) and fatigue from the event are enough to make me rather inarticulate. Maybe that's why they come after me - I certainly reinforce the "dumb jock" stereotype.

TV's definitely a much more unnatural environment than being interviewed for radio or print. For either of these it's possible to treat this as a reasonably normal conversation (if you forget that there might be several hundred thousand people on the other end of the phone), but you can't do that when the lights and camera are in your face.

i guess its common for everyone that trains that, when you are really pushing yourself, you seek deep into your inner grunt for motivation, strength and persistence. I have always thought elite orienteers are tough (real tough) and therefore their inner grunt should be gruntier and... bigger. When meeting such elites, (e.g. Hanny Allston), they are often sweet people, very amicable and friendly. I guess Simmo is just dissapointed in Minna's interview because she just comes across a very normal person, that is very tired after a tough race, instead of some mega personality.

Certainly there is a cultural difference as well. Minna's job is to be an excellent athlete and that is how it goes in Finland. As a Finn I can tell you that there are a lot of Finns who should be professionals in that kind of interviews like politicians and they cannot make it better than Minna did.

Also, you need to remember that just a moment ago Minna and other team members had won the biggest and most important competion in the orienteering world, at least for Finns. Like Minna said in Finnish right after the race, winning the Venla relay is her biggest achievement. Certainly there are more emotions in her mind at that moment than the press interview.