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Meet the Press - 10 Minutes at a Time
For 10 minutes at a time, Comparative Government students at Shawnigan got to see what it’s like to be a world leader, a press secretary, or a member of the press corps covering national and international issues.
During the last week before Spring Break, Mr. Paul Klassen and Mr. Remi Anctil’s Comp Gov classes held 10-minute press conferences in Mitchell Hall. Students were selected to represent either executive leaders, press secretaries, or members of the media from six different countries: Russia, Iran, the UK, Nigeria, Mexico and China.
Each of the 10-minute conferences was opened with a two-minute statement from the press secretary, followed by eight minutes of questions from the reporters to the leader. Media members prepared specific questions for the leader from their assigned country, then afterward wrote newspaper headlines or a political cartoon based on the press conferences
As preparation, students portraying the leaders were asked to conduct research on their assigned country and its current leader, press secretaries were asked to research the country and portray it in a positive light in their statement, and reporters were asked to assign themselves to a real media outlet – either foreign or local – for their questions to be specific and authentic without being personal or inappropriate.
Students came away from the exercise with a new range of knowledge, both with regard to international relations and the media, and in their own abilities.
“One of the takeaways I had from the press conference was the difficulty of answering questions on policy and government off the fly, which really made me think about the real-life difficulty that politicians face in press conferences, where messing up or being unclear in what you want to say can have real-life repercussions, and not just a potential lower grade,” commented Seb A., who served as press secretary for the Mexican government. “Overall I enjoyed the experience thoroughly, although I do believe I could have answered certain questions better and asked for clarification on others.
“I need to work on my public speaking skills,” reflected Emmet K. “I had all of the answers in my mind, but I just couldn't speak straight. It seems really cliche, but I was literally lost for words. On the contrary, the question I asked was good, but I had a lot of other well-written ones that I would've loved to use. I think that when not on the spot, I'm better.”
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Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
