In the early morning of Wednesday August 26th, a reporter and a cameraman were fatally shot during a live broadcast in Moneta, Virginia. Twenty-four-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward, both of CBS affiliate WDBJ-TV, were killed by Vester Lee Flanagan II (also known as Bryce Williams), a former reporter at the station who was fired after less than a year working there. Flanagan also recorded the shooting and posted it onto his Twitter and Facebook pages before both accounts were quickly shut down. He later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a running off the road during a manhunt.
Can you imagine sitting in your home watching a regular newscast when all of a sudden a horrific event, like the on air shooting in Virginia occurs? Now take that perspective and think about those who were in the control room and in the newsroom at the time.
When I first heard about the shooting that morning, I was in complete shock. As an aspiring journalist, especially one in the broadcasting industry, hearing a story like that completely breaks my heart.
Many of my friends and classmates in my Broadcast News Writing class that morning would not stop talking about it. All of us were glued to our phones in order to find out about any updates on the event.
As many professions go, there are its upsides and its downsides. With journalism, especially broadcast journalism, it's great that you can have the ability to speak your mind to the public and give your opinion to audiences. However, journalism is not as glamorous as everyone thinks it is. There will be people who will go against your opinion and/or the way that your portray your opinion.
Many of my friends who have either interned at news stations over the summer or are now working at news stations have told me stories about how there have been many "crazies" who have tried to burst into the stations and about the many threats their fellow coworkers would receive, especially on social media. With social media, it only increases the chance for threats like these to be noticed because attackers could pinpoint where their targets are more easily.
A journalist's goal is to inform their audiences about what's going on around them, locally, nationally or internationally. They go out there every day into either the safest or most dangerous of locations to cover a story. It hurts me inside to see journalists (print, broadcast or online) injured or killed doing what they love most: Trying to make an impact on their audiences.
To my fellow aspiring journalists, reporters, anchors and news producers: Our road is tough. We will go through several ups and downs. We will trek into dangerous territories, both internally and externally. We will face people with different opinions as us. We will face people who will hold grudges on us, whether they are coworkers or random strangers. But what we cannot do is run away and stop doing what we love doing most: Giving our audience a perspective about the world and letting them know about the big or little things happening around them. We can't just stop because one person doesn't like the way we look or because someone has a personal grudge. If not for us, how else will audiences be aware of what's going on?
To all of my newsies out there: Keep calm and news on.
