We are pleased to be working in partnership with The Institute of Chartered Foresters to bring you this workshop on media training, hosted by Anne Jones from Just Farmers.
Event Description
With growing public awareness around forestry's role in fighting the climate emergency, tree professionals are increasingly being approached by the media to comment on current environmental policies and research. We are pleased that Anna Jones from Just Farmers is joining us to deliver this one-day workshop that will provide essential media training.
The workshop will look at how traditional media (press, TV, radio) operates and what journalists are looking for, explore barriers to effective communication between the forestry sector and the media, share lessons that foresters can learn from the agriculture sector and help overcome fears about working with journalists. It will also help members learn how to identify a story and get the media interested, develop editorial judgement, with top tips for being interviewed ‘on the record’ and how to build confidence about working with the media.
Anna has run similar workshops for a range of agricultural organisations including the Institute of Agricultural Management (IAgrM), National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, British Christmas Tree Growers Association, Pasture for Life, Soil Association, Yorkshire Agricultural Society and Farm Net Zero.
Topics covered in the workshop
‘The Disconnect’ between primary producers and the media – why it exists and what we can do about it.
What is news?
What the media wants – how to stop fighting it and start working with it
Understand what makes a story – and what doesn’t
How to develop and pitch a good story idea (with practical exercises)
‘Good Talkers’ – and how to be one. Top tips for interview situations
Interview practice and role play.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the day, you will be able to:
Understand the media on a deeper level
Engage with the media more positively and constructively
Understand what makes a story – and what doesn’t
Start pitching stories and developing ideas
Feel more prepared for being interviewed.
What you will need on the day:
A story idea you believe would be of interest to the general public – you will be asked to pitch your idea to the group and may be interviewed about it
Bring along an item you use in your everyday work, something you can talk about ‘on air’ and preferably demonstrate
Pen and paper.
This is a fantastic opportunity and places are limited – book early to secure your place.
About the Speaker
Anna Jones - Founder, Just Farmers.
Anna Jones is a freelance rural affairs journalist, writer, broadcaster, and a farmer’s daughter.
She has worked across a wide range of television and radio programmes including BBC One’s Countryfile, Radio 4’s Farming Today, On Your Farm, Costing the Earth and The Archers and reported on agricultural issues for BBC News and the World Service. She has written for The Guardian, Countryfile Magazine, Farmers Guardian and Farmers Weekly.
Anna’s career took an unexpected turn after doing a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 2016/17, which looked at how the media portrays farming and country life to the public. She travelled the world and discovered a deep disconnect between the metropolitan mainstream media and a distrustful and defensive farming industry.
It made Anna determined to motivate farmers to step up and share their stories. In 2018, she left her staff job at the BBC to set up a communications project called ‘Just Farmers’, aimed at connecting journalists and programme makers with independent, authentic voices at the grassroots of farming. Her mission to improve the national conversation around rural issues, agriculture and the environment inspired her first book 'Divide: The relationship crisis between town and country', published by Kyle Books in March 2022.
Anna splits her time between Bristol and Shropshire and is yet to find a place that feels more like home than the family farm on the Welsh Borders.
Who should attend?
The workshop is designed to be suitable for any forestry professional living or working in Wales.
Booking Fee
£20
Focus on Forestry First Ltd fully funds these events, all we ask for is a small booking fee to secure your place on the course.
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.
Point of contact
If you have any issues booking this event please contact - info@focusonforestryfirst.co.uk