What Will I Do When It Happens to Me?

What will I do when it happens to me was a session that made me think about the stress journalists go through.
How many of us will cover a huge fire?  How about a murder?
How will you report that?
What if you get captured and held hostage?  What if you are threatened with a gun?
Just some things I never thought about before this session.

Chris Cramer, who has worked for CNN and BBC, was held hostage for a little over a day.  His first though was, “Gosh this is fantastic!  Can you believe it?! This is going make my career!”  That to, “Oh shit! What I am going to do? I’ve got to get out!”
He feels now that there are other ways to be an exceptional journalist “instead of running around like a crazy cowboy.”

Lois Norder, the managing editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram gave us the perspective from her position.  She said she picks the reporters who go on these scary/scarring stories very carefully.  Then in the event a reporter goes out to cover a hurricane or a fire and comes back scarred, she recommends that you “make them feel like they are not a failure if they want help” from someone.  It is important to ask your reporters if they are OK after they come back from a rough story.

Journalists tend to think they are immune to danger or pain or even death sometimes, so many of us take these hard stories without thinking about what it will do to us.

Mike Walter, an anchor from WUSA-TV watched the plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.  “I thought I was a jaded journalist,” he said. “But I found myself fighting back tears.”

Cramer says it is important to create a culture where it OK to say “NO.”

Cramer, Norder, Walter and Ron Martz, the president of Military Reporters and Editors agreed that it is important to be prepared for situations where you might be in danger.  Only in the last 10 or 15 years have newsrooms started offering classes for preparation. After these classes, many journalists feel confident that they could survive in hostile regions.  Their work was better.  Photos were amazing.  Stories were real.

It is important to know we as journalists have support in the newsroom.

A great support system is the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and the Dart Society.