COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course focuses on the relationship between law enforcement/business with a specific emphasis on dealing with the media using a practical “hands-on” approach.  The course will provide participants with a systematic approach to decision making in media relations.  Class discussions will be extensively utilized to develop the nature and function of the news media in modern society, changes in the media from a historical perspective, how law enforcement/business entities and the media view each other in the context of their respective functions, various legal and ethical issues which affect this relationship and how to plan and deal with the media in crisis situations.  Participants will conduct “live” press briefings, participate in a “talk show” program, learn to deal with “bad news” situations and utilize a simple seven step plan to successfully deal with any media situation. 

COURSE TOPICS

1.       Communication and listening skills
2.        Press briefings
3.        Trends and functions of the media in the new millennium
4.        Media Leaks
5.        Crisis pre-planning
6.        7 steps to successful media encounters
7.        Media traps and pitfalls
8.        Message creation and delivery
9.        Assembly, analysis and release of information in a crisis or “bad news” situation
10.    The 10 Commandments and 7 Deadly Sins in media relations  

JAMES E. HIGHT

Supervisory Senior Resident Agent

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Tulsa, Oklahoma

 Jim is currently assigned as a Supervisory Senior Resident Agent in the Tulsa, Oklahoma office of the FBI.  His supervisory responsibilities include oversight of all Counterterrorism, Foreign Counter-Intelligence and Cybercrime matters within the Northern Judicial District of Oklahoma.  Additionally, he supervises the Tulsa Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and the Innocent Images National Initiative Task Force.

Prior to entering on duty with the FBI in March 1983, Jim was a police officer in Overland Park, Kansas for 10 years.  He has served in the Kansas City, Charlotte (Fayetteville RA), Chicago and Oklahoma City Field Offices.   From April 1995 to May 1997, Jim was assigned as one of several case Agents to investigate the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  In May 1997, Jim was transferred as an instructor and faculty member to the FBI Academy at Quanticio, Virginia, specializing in Media Relations, Interview and Interrogation, Statement Analysis and Informant Development.  He is also an adjunct professor at The University of Virginia.  Jim has delivered presentation to the National Executive Institute, the FBI’s Executive Development Seminars, the Intergovernmental Audit Forums, sponsored by the General Accounting Office, Police Command Colleges across the United States and multiple business/civic groups.  In addition to his supervisory responsibilities in Tulsa, Jim travels instructing at various venues in Oklahoma and throughout the nation.

 Jim holds a BA degree in Criminology from Washburn University of Topeka, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institutes’ Administrative Officer’s Course at the University of Louisville.  He and his wife, Linda, a former FBI support employee, have three grown children and reside in the Tulsa area.