RTNDA: Covering a Crisis

There was an interesting session on covering major breaking news to kick off RTNDA. CNN’s Kyra Phillips moderated a panel featuring news directors from Los Angeles (wildfires), Minneapolis (the bridge collapse) and Norfolk (the Virginia Tech shootings). Remember, it was at this show last year that the shootings happened at Virginia Tech.

The panelists covered everything from knowing how much emotion to add to the reports,  to when to pull overtired/overstressed news gatherers off the story and send them  home to rest, to how to say thank you to staffs for staying on the story for days on end.

WTKR Norfolk news director Shane Moreland said reporters  hit their stride when they suspended journalistic conventions during the crisis and added their personal connections  to Virginia  Tech and the shootings. (Three of Moreland’s anchors were adjunct professors at the university.) "That was the moment they connected with the community," he said.