By: Ryan Ford
Still in its early stages, the spread of parkour is largely due to newspaper, magazine, and television articles and features. Unfortunately, many of these articles are poor representations of parkour and send ambiguous, mixed, or downright wrong information to the viewer. If you ever have the opportunity to work with the media for a parkour article, please take the time to handle it accurately and professionally.
When you have an opportunity to work with the media on an article, first ask yourself if you are really up to the task. Before becoming involved with an article, ask yourself:
Do I have a good understanding and knowledge of parkour?
Am I able to communicate that knowledge effectively?
Do I have a good level of skill in my parkour?
Can I act professionally around the media and make right choices?
An accurate and well done parkour article depends on the people involved with it. Not any new traceur or even experienced ones are good candidates to deal with the media. However, the more experience you have, the more likely you will do a good job. Most traceurs are not ready to be involved with a parkour article until they have at least a couple years of experience in gaining knowledge of parkour, talking about parkour, and building their skills to a decent level.
When you do decide to make the plunge into the media’s world, you will find that there are four major parts that will determine the end result of the article. First of all, you must plan and coordinate the event. The second and third parts are the interview and demonstration. Last of all, the fourth role is what you do after the event is over.
Part One - Planning, Coordination, and Organization
This role consists of all the planning, organization, and coordination that must occur in order to set up a smooth meeting with the reporter or media crew. This should be handled by a responsible person who is a good leader and has the knowledge and resources to make it happen. There are several key parts to this stage.
1. Get to know the people from the media who you will be working with.
It can be important to get to know who you will be working with. Once you have their email or phone, don’t hesitate to ask them about what they are looking for and what your concerns are. Not all reporters or publications are looking for an accurate representation of parkour. Sometimes it is better to say no to a reporter or publication with shady intentions. Also, look over previous work from the reporter or publication to see what their articles, opinions, and biases are like. If you decide to do the article, offer the reporter some good links to read beforehand. Be sure to include accurate and informational articles such as these:
http://parkour.net/parkour/articles/item.php?itemid=1
http://parkour.net/parkour/articles/item.php?itemid=2
http://parkour.net/parkour/articles/item.php?itemid=16
2. Choose a good location, time, and other traceurs to work with.
Even if you do everything right for an accurate article, it can still be jeopardized if you chose a bad time, location, and other traceurs to work with. Make sure to pick a good location that has plenty of ground level obstacles. Large, high, and dangerous roof tops and other obstacles are not something we want to glorify in the media. Stay away from them when in the presence of the media. Depending on your location, pick a good time for the event to take place. Last of all, pick the other traceurs involved in the article wisely. It is best to limit the group size to five people or less. Otherwise, it can become too crazy and diluted with so many people around doing parkour and giving suggestions. Everyone involved in the article should have a good level of understanding of parkour and at least a solid grasp of the basic skills to demonstrate with. Last of all, suggest that you meet more than once. The more time the reporter spends seeing and talking about parkour, the better they will understand. Tell them that their article will be better and more accurate if they agree to meet more than once.
3. Confirm all the details with everyone involved.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but always confirm all the details with both the media and the other traceurs. In addition to the logistics of the meeting, confirm what the media will be doing and what they are looking for. Things to find out beforehand include if they are taking photographs or video and what the topic of their article is. If the media says they will be writing a parkour article, keep it accurate and do only parkour. Don’t even give them the chance to see flips, tricks, or stupid stunts. Even if you clearly say, “This is not parkour”, they can and will take it out of context and screw it up! Also, confirm all the details with the other traceurs so you know who will be involved with the event. Be sure to let everyone know if it is parkour story so they can be sure to limit themselves to only parkour as well.
Part Two - Interviews
Interviews can be awkward and difficult if you have never done one and come unprepared. To prevent any miscommunication and promote a good representation of parkour, follow these tips.
1. Prepare and practice some basic answers for expected and common questions.
Nearly every reporter will ask some questions about what is parkour, basic history, basic techniques, and more. To prevent yourself from looking like a stumbling idiot, prepare some basic answers to these basic questions beforehand. Also be sure to have an idea of some general background information of yourself to talk about when they ask. Don’t write long answers and try to memorize them. Have an idea of what to say but also just have fun and go along with the flow of the interview.
2. Expect the media to not understand.
Be clear and concise with all of your explanations and answers. If needed, reinforce your answers with a quick demonstration to help the reporter get a better idea of what you are trying to say. Parkour is a unique thing and can be difficult to understand to an outsider. Have some back up plans and methods to use in case one method doesn’t seem to work. Be sure they understand or else they may use the dreaded skateboarding without the skateboard comparison!
3. Play down all “extreme” questions.
Every reporter I have dealt with has asked the inevitable extreme and sensationalized questions. Here are a few examples of these questions and good answers for them:
“What are the worst injuries you’ve had?”
Parkour is not nearly as dangerous as most other sports. Scrapes and bruises are common but major injuries are very rare. However, just like any high impact activity such as basketball or soccer, the occasionally sprained ankle or pulled muscle is inevitable.
“What’s the highest thing you’ve ever jumped off?”
Parkour is not about jumping off high things. It is physically taxing on your body and requires a great deal of technique to stay safe. Nobody with less than a few years of experience should be jumping off anything much taller than their own height.
4. If the media does not ask the important questions, tell them anyway!
Sometimes the media does not ask the right questions to fully understand parkour. If they don’t ask the important questions, tell them anyway. Some important topics to address may be safety, the philosophy of parkour (being useful and helpful to others), respect for property and authority, competition and parkour, and the differences between parkour and other activities.
Part Three - Demonstrations
When it comes time to actually demonstrate parkour for the media, there are several things to keep in mind.
1. Designate some guidelines as a group.
Even though I said this earlier in the article, it is important enough to reiterate here. When demonstrating parkour to the media, there are some things that should not be shown. Included on this list are high dangerous jumps, flips, tricks, and stunts. If you are doing a parkour article, make sure everyone knows that so they can limit themselves to parkour. One uninformed person can make a mistake of going flip crazy and ruining the article. As we all know, flips are not parkour and shouldn’t be in a parkour article. Also, we do not want to contribute to the media glorifying roof jumping and dangerous stunts. If you do any of these things, it is not the fault of the media who puts it in the article. It is your fault for giving them the opportunity to do so.
2. Have one person in charge of giving suggestions and feedback to the media.
When a bunch of people are all making suggestions to the reporter or crew, it can be chaotic and unorganized. To keep it organized and efficient, have one person in charge of making the suggestions. This person can help organize video or photo shots, explain to the reporter what the other traceurs are doing, and more.
3. Demonstrate a variety of things.
Be sure to demonstrate a variety of different things. Things to cover can include runs, chase sequences, basic techniques, choreographed scenes, and more. Use as many different ways to portray, demonstrate, and represent parkour as well as you can.
4. Stay safe and smart.
Be sure to stay safe and smart for anything you try to demonstrate. Normally it is best to stick to things you have done before and are 100% confident in. To the best of your ability, try to stay safe and not let the media see any bails or injuries. Also, you are under the microscope when out with the media. Always act respectful and don’t do anything illegal or stupid.
Part Four - Post-Meeting Actions
1. Thank everyone involved.
It seems obvious but the more professional and mature you act throughout this entire event, the better the article will be.
2. Follow up on the article to the reporter.
After the meeting is over, be sure to follow up by email or phone to the reporter. Thank them again for their time. Ask them if they have any other questions or need any fact checking or clarification. Remind them to do a little research on the articles you suggested before if they haven’t read through them already. Even reiterate some of your main points or address any concerns you may have from the meeting.
3. Tell everyone you know when the article or feature comes out!
Stay in contact with the report so that you know when the article will come out. Be sure to tell everyone you know to check it out. Parkour spreads mainly by word of mouth so let everyone know so they can become informed about parkour.
4. Critique the article when it comes out.
When the article finally comes out, view it in an unbiased way. Evaluate the job you did by how accurate and positive the article is. While the final result is in the reporter’s and editor’s hands, nearly everything they have to work with was somehow affected by you. Because of this, take responsibility for how it turned out. While it is perfectly acceptable to let the reporter know what you thought of the article in a mature manner, critique the article and yourself and figure out how YOU can do even better next time.
In conclusion, everything about how the article turns out is directly or indirectly a result of all the choices and actions you took during the process of making the article. Over the past couple years, I have been involved in over ten television, newspaper, online, and magazine reports. I have learned many things in the process and I hope you will consider my advice when you do an article yourself. Stay smart and organized and you will end up with a successful article at the end.
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