News coverage becomes less controversial when our nation experiences a tragedy. As viewers, readers or listeners, we become hungry for details and focus less on a reporter's perceived bias, but instead, what we can learn about the breaking news incident.
In the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the Phoenix helicopter crashes, did your mind rush to think of everyone you know in Minnesota and Arizona? In our newsroom, we all asked each other if we knew the photographers who died when the two news choppers collided. Broadcasting is a small fraternity, where friends move often from market to market.
When news becomes personal, the what, when, where, why and how fade away, and it's all about the who. I encourage my colleagues in the press to remember that when they cover the tragedies of others. And for those of you who like sensational/entertainment/tabloid-style news better than more factual coverage, stop and think about how you'd like to be on the camera end of those reports.
Becoming a Better Newsmaker with Soundbite Coach Lorri Allen
Books About the News Media I Recommend
- Be A Newsmaker by Lorri Allen and Linda Swindling
- How to Speak TV: A Self-Defense Manual When You're the News by Clarence Jones
- Speak Like a CEO by Suzanne Bates
- Telling the Story: The National Public Radio Guide to Radio Journalism
- The Crisis Counselor: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing a Business Crisis by Jeffrey R. Caponigro
About Me
Why this method of communication?
You have to reach people where they want to be reached. And some days we're all just talked out. So we can let our fingers do the dialoguing.
The idea of this blog is to answer questions about the news media from a different perspective. Some media-savvy advice givers will tell you only how to spin, some are too cynical and others just don't have the blend of TV, Radio, Print and PR experience that I've been blessed--or cursed!--to gather.
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