Six weeks ago, I spoke of covering traumatic events and expressed a glimmer of hope and optimism; you can guess where those levels are about now.
It is hard not to be cynical while working in this business. I think it’s hard not to be cynical simply being a human being who is awake.
I do not expect too many people to think too hard to figure out what the one refers to when I say, Waiting for the next one.
Planning for news coverage generally follows a common theme, anticipating a series of regular events while each has unique components yet still comprises a familiar and predictable makeup. Most of the time, we can pretty much guess what is going to happen, and we know what to look for.
Depending on your area and where your market sits, weather events are an excellent example of what I am referencing. For instance, hurricane season often brings a well-worn planning guide and an operational outline for coverage. We went to trusted sources and spheres of information and tried proper types of locations for our live shots and our one-on-one interviews with the hot spots for natural sound and B-roll.
We can plan for parades and festivals, staking out the vantage points for the best images, wide and close-up pans, and the wells of excited spectators.
Yet things began to change somewhere along the line, well before Independence Day in Highland Park, Illinois, maybe somewhere in between the Boston Marathon bombing, even back to the Rodney King video.
Coverage of many of those events started as feel-goods, puff pieces almost, and everything changed in the blink of an eye. (Not the King video, of course, but that happening would lead to a series of chain reaction events and new types of accelerated coverage)
It is now to a point where we can no longer take cues from the networks because we do not know where things like mass shootings, riots, and questionable police activities will happen. So the short answer here is that it is happening everywhere, and no matter where the tragic and horrific events occur, everyone feels it, and there is fear and outrage outside our doors.
What happened to George Floyd may have occurred on the streets of Minneapolis, but we watched and reported on the outrage as humanity reacted far away, on the streets of Charleston, Atlanta, and Seattle. Those demonstrations and worse became an entirely separate occurrence. Predictable? Maybe, knowing what could happen but not knowing where or when does not amount to much. Moreover, remember, the view those days from inside the control room and the producer’s booth was likely similar in dozens of cities and numerous markets.
Simply put, we must change with the times to plan or anticipate better falls short.
The next festival, the next parade, will not be covered the same way. So who now covers a concert without planning vantage points, escape routes, and security concerns because of the Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas or the Astroworld concert stampede in Texas?
Reporters, Field Producers, and Photographers are skilled at looking for the story within the story. The great background, the perfect eyewitness, the impassioned and articulate demonstrator, but what else is happening now?
Profiling.
A term I certainly avoided in years past.
Where is that man going? Where does that door lead? Who is on the roof and why? Why has that woman laid that backpack down?
People and situations will be getting the once-over at least twice. Vantage and access points everywhere will be scanned and scanned again.
The anticipatory stress is likely to build. Who and where is the next bad guy? How do you do your job without distraction?
And I am talking not only about the job and the work product but also about straightforward, human self-preservation.
And how do the planners plan now?
What strategies will be employed to do the job that in the past had a more straightforward playbook? Covering anything attracting a public audience or an enthusiastic crow appears must now be prepared with the preciseness of a SWAT entry.
We must now be ready to turn on a dime in case of the story transitions into the story. It may be unlikely and reasonably improbable perhaps, but it is no longer impossible and can longer be dismissed.
The residual outcome from these attacks and tragic incidents will also become news story sidebars and follow-ups. Today, a story highlights the town’s new emergency evacuation plan for annual fairs and exhibitions. Tonight, we look at a local school district showing off its new security application to prevent unauthorized entries that suddenly rival NORAD’s access control.
Every journalist must stay on top of these revisions and upgrades to get somewhere to cover a story.
Will there be pushback from reporters and photojournalists who no longer feel safe reporting from the institutions that help identify our communities and markets?
Maybe.
Will the planners be shying away from on-scene coverage of specific long-standing prominent destinations for simple issues of safety and liability concerns?
Hopefully not, but people do have fears.
The news will always be reactive, but I imagine more and more, there are and will be different kinds of conversations going on from the top down.
The thought process will continue to change, I did not say it will evolve, but it will change.
Bill Zito has devoted most of his work efforts to broadcast news since 1999. He made the career switch after serving a dozen years as a police officer on both coasts. Splitting the time between Radio and TV, he’s worked for ABC News and Fox News, News 12 New York , The Weather Channel and KIRO and KOMO in Seattle. He writes, edits and anchors for Audacy’s WTIC-AM in Hartford and lives in New England. You can find him on Twitter @BillZitoNEWS.
