{"id":5072,"date":"2023-11-09T22:39:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T22:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=5072"},"modified":"2023-11-09T22:39:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T22:39:06","slug":"heres-what-new-reporters-need-to-know-about-on-the-job-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2023\/11\/09\/heres-what-new-reporters-need-to-know-about-on-the-job-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s what new reporters need to know about on-the-job safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>TROY, Ala. (<a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 It&#8217;s a career many students in the Hall School of Journalism and Communication (HSJC) want to enter: broadcast journalism. But the field, while exciting, can also be dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HSJC instructor Stephanie East was a reporter for Alabama News Network for nearly 14 years. Over the years she developed her own safety tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I was a general assignment reporter so I did just about everything,&#8221; East said. &#8220;Politics, education, breaking news, crime.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being on the job can be a little dangerous when you are out on a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Luckily my station made sure that we were always paired up if we had to go out to a crime scene,&#8221; East explained. &#8220;It&#8217;s really important that you have a a buddy system to be able to look out for any situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>East stressed the importance of listening to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to be able to listen to what the police are telling you. If they tell you not to cross a certain area it&#8217;s really important to adhere to that because they know what&#8217;s going on and they want to make sure that you don&#8217;t put yourself in danger.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>East also said reporters should feel empowered to request additional safety measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Its absolutely okay to ask your boss to have somebody go out with you to a scene if you feel like you&#8217;re not going to feel safe. When you get out there, be aware of your surroundings really cognizant of your surroundings.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) also offers safety advice. Some of that advice applies to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>No solo live shots if the MMJ does not feel comfortable<\/strong>: \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Safety is a priority, and MMJs should not feel in danger.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Newsroom management needs to trust the MMJ on safety concerns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No solo live shots at night, unless the MMJ feels it can be done safely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Safety Check System<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When an MMJ is out in the field, a quick safety check is necessary, and this can also involve the producer and director helping out. Just like when they do audio checks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Door Knocking<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Do not send an MMJ to knock on a door alone, mainly when covering a crime story.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;Give the MMJ the option to make the call on this assignment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0If it is a must, have a buddy system where the MMJ goes with another worker.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find additional information about reporter safety on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spj.org\/safety-mmj.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SPJ&#8217;s website<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 It&#8217;s a career many students in the Hall School of Journalism and Communication (HSJC) want to enter: broadcast journalism. But the field, while exciting, can also be dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>HSJC instructor Stephanie East was a reporter for Alabama News Network for nearly 14 years. Over the years she developed her own safety&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a-button\" href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2023\/11\/09\/heres-what-new-reporters-need-to-know-about-on-the-job-safety\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[1278,112,1046,1280],"topics":[5,17],"class_list":["post-5072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-broadcast-journalism","tag-hsjc","tag-journalism","tag-stephanie-east","topics-college-of-communication-and-fine-arts","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=5072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}