Being Prepared Is Key To Crisis Coverage

It may buck journalistic instinct, but broadcast journalists need to take time to plan coverage when crisis-level stories break, while making staff and community wellbeing top priorities, industry leaders say.

“Just take two minute to make sure you’re sending the right people to the right places, because once they’re there they are not going to get out for 12 to 16 hours, “ said KOMO Seattle News Director Holly Gauntt. Despite reporters’ gut instinct to rush to disaster scenes, newsroom leaders first should “get everyone calmed down,” she said.

Gauntt — whose experience includes covering the 9/11 attacks in Washington, the Oklahoma City bombing and, recently, the Washington state mudslides — was one of four news managers who discussed the best practices of crisis coverage, the topic of a TVNewsCheck co-sponsored panel Wednesday at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Other panelists were KTLA Los Angeles News Director Jason Ball; Keith Barbaria, director of technology at WVIT Hartford-New Haven, Conn.; and Todd Spessard, the news director at KWTV Oklahoma City.

Panelists said there’s a myriad of challenges in covering crises — logistics, safety and emotional impacts are some — but that having a disaster plan and putting the necessary tools and protocol in place to execute it are essential for broadcasters to help keep the public safe in such situations.

For instance, Spessard, whose team last year covered the Moore, Okla., tornado, has 10 radios with headsets that operate on a newsroom frequency so station decision makers can communicate when other methods fail.

Ball and Barbaria said their plans include systems for pushing out disaster-related information over digital platforms. KTLA’s has a step-by-step protocol that calls for pushing news using Twitter first, followed by Facebook and push alerts.

Managers, panelists said, should also have pre-assigned areas of responsibility. Staffers should also monitor other news outlets’ coverage, as well as social media, to make sure story developments aren’t missed — and unconfirmed information isn’t reported.

Setting up command centers in the field is also crucial in covering disasters that last longer than a few hours, since they need to provide everything from operational tools to food, water and shelter for news crews. During Hurricane Sandy, Barbaria rented a homeowner’s basement so crews had a place to rest. Spessard has rented office space for crews to rest because otherwise “they are going to wear out. And if the crews in the field wear out, then it’s more difficult to do coverage.”

Other best practices of crisis coverage speak to the safety and emotional wellbeing of those staffers as well. Panelists recommended that after the initial rush of disaster coverage, crews should work in 12-hour shifts.

“You have to keep in mind that even though people appear really strong and want to cover the story you have to give them a break emotionally and physically,” Gauntt said. “In a tragedy, you have to take care of your people. Covering anything where the death count is huge you have to give them whatever comfort you can to succeed.”

Barbaria agreed. He said the station bringing counselors in to help the news team after the Sandy Hook school shooting was essential to their ability to be able to respond to subsequent crises. “A lot of us thought we didn’t need it,” Barbaria said. “But some stories just really get you and you have to address how sad you are. It starts to break you down.”

Yet in times of crises, there will always be some situations that can’t be governed by hard-and-fast rules — like, say, when people ask reporters for help finding a missing child or reporting on a personal disaster, like KOMO did last month when its chopper crashed.

“You know what the emotions are and what you have to do and you just do it,” Gauntt said. “You don’t have a choice.”