For four days, I have watched video on television of the horror and tragedy of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The first images I saw reminded me of how many times this has happened this year. Aurora. Oak Creek. Even here in Minneapolis. Working in television news, I have become jaded to this type of violence. My job as a newscast producer requires me to keep myself together, and distance myself from what I write about. I am not without emotion, but I must keep my emotions in check from the moment I start putting together a show.

This morning I witnessed a moment stronger than anything I can remember in the three years I’ve spent as a producer. Gene Rosen was a hero to many parents and kids the morning of the shooting. The grandfather lives near the elementary school. Six kids who
escaped the shooting made it to his driveway. He invited them in to protect them and called their parents. While they waited, he brought them toys and juice, and talked to two of the kids about what happened.

Here is the video of Rosen explaining what he went through that morning. Although it is an abbreviation of a different video I saw, what he says is heartbreaking. He embodies so much pain, empathy, sympathy, gentleness, and sadness. Here was a man, with no relation to the school, thrust into a tragedy. He was aware of the ignorance and innocence of children. How do you handle that? I would never want to trade shoes with Rosen because no person should ever be in his position, nor should anyone who was at the school that day.

I felt a tear swell in my eye listening to him. I was on deadline, but his voice, his inflection was so human, I simply could not click “stop,” and cut him off. He needed to say those words, and I was compelled to listen to them.

I am fortunate because I am so far removed from the tragedy. My heart goes out to the reporters and field crews who’ve spent the last four days in Newtown, who’ve also had to bury their emotions for the sake of the public. Certainly a reporter has had to shed a tear of their own, because this shooting was so horrific, so unimaginable, how do you make sense of it?

2012 has had so many gun-related tragedies. Simply put, enough is enough. I won’t politicize what happened, but I hope the writing is on the wall. I hope 2013 is a happier, safer year for everyone. No more bloodshed, no more tears.

And it reminds me of these lyrics, which never seemed more appropriate than now. God bless.

“And so happy Christmas for black and for white
For the yellow and red ones let’s stop all the fights.
A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear.”

Mike Brannen is a morning newscast producer for KSTP, the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St.Paul. Before that, he was a producer at KIRO7 in Seattle, where he led the 4:30 a.m. show to a #1 share in the U.S. He received an MA in Broadcast Management from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2010 and received his Bachelor of Journalism degree the year before. He shares more about his life at mikebrannen.com and on Twitter: @MikeBrannen.

Los Angeles is known for its many seasons: fire season, storm season and of course the most coveted award season. Although all the other seasons might sound charming, (and believe me, nothing is more exciting than “storm watch -insert year here-”), when it comes down to it, it’s all about award season.

Iʼve mentioned before that living in the shadow of the iconic sign, I wasnʼt too shocked when I was asked to work during this yearʼs award season.

What is award season? In a nut shell its all the award shows (Grammyʼs, SAG, Emmyʼs, Golden Globes and the mother of them all: The Oscars) that usually happens early in the year. Now, Iʼm sure most of you are probably thinking: “Oh, so you were on the red carpet doing interviews?” The answer is: No, not exactly. My primary role as a freelance production assistant lies behind the scenes, a few blocks away at the bureau. And this being my first exposure to award season, I wasnʼt sure what exactly I was in for.

My day began (or in this case afternoon) with a quick rundown of everyoneʼs assignments ranging from logging fashion cameras, different correspondentʼs interview cameras and of course the actual show. This takes place to better assist producers and correspondents in locating specific sound bites, fashion trends (good or bad) and the overall theme which will contribute to the next dayʼs hot topics.

After the show is aired and the rental trucks arrive to break down the set, the real work begins. I begin to proofread my logs and take note of anything interesting SOTs, look through Twitter for celeb reactions and file them in an email addressed to the whole unit.

This is done as I wait for producers, reporters and photographers to return with footage needing to be fed to anyone who requests it and then archived into the library. The process can continue into the early morning, depending on how long it all takes to arrive.

Personally, I think this is much more fun than being out on the red carpet since you get an opportunity to see the big picture of the event from both sides. From coaxing a celeb for an interview to watching a parade of a stylists hard work, it’s amazing how much work and energy is involved to cover these types of events. The day is long, but what do you expect? Its Hollywood, babe!

Claudia Amezcua is a freelance multi-plaform reporter and production assistant based inf Los Angeles, CA. She is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelors in Communications, and is currently pursuing an Associates Degree in On-Air Radio Broadcasting from Mt. San Antonio College. Ms. Amezcua’s work experience includes anchor, reporter, and DJ at 90.1 KSAK in Walnut, CA, and as a freelance production and library assistant for CNN. You can follow Claudia on twitter by @ClaudiaAmezcua, or visit claudiaamezcua.com.

Let’s get something straight: Andrew Breitbart did not die a journalist.

The infamous conservative activist of the digital media age, who died on March 1 reportedly of natural causes, was just that. He’s not the only one of those energetically blogging or broadcasting in this era, and liberal crusading is plentiful. But this isn’t going to be a discussion about the political left media versus the political right media.

This is about the meaning of journalism.

In their book The Elements of Journalism (if you weren’t assigned reading from this book in college, then go find it now), Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel wrote: “Over the last 300 years, news professionals have developed a loose set of principles and values to fulfill the function of providing news – the indirect knowledge by which people come to form their opinion about the world. Foremost among these principles is this: Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.

“On this there is absolute unanimity and also utter confusion: everyone agrees that journalists must tell the truth, yet people are befuddled about what ‘the truth’ means.”

This theme of dubious fact-sharing was echoed by a recent ad for The Guardian in the United Kingdom in which the story of the Three Little Pigs has evolved into numerous viewpoints and ideas through open discussion and social media about whether the wolf was truly the culprit.
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By: Jacqueline Ingles

The best advice from my college journalism professor was to always remember journalists are like doctors, people choose to specialize in different things. For example, an ER doctor loves the rush and being under the gun and I think a reporter who strives for breaking news is pretty comparable. But for some of us, we want to do it all, like a general medicine doctor, that is why we have general assignment reporters.

Last week, a fellow Medill graduate in my class, James Foley, was taken prisoner in Libya. He was reporting there for his newspaper when his van was shot at and he was taken prisoner by armed men.
James is still being held prisoner as his family awaits word if he is safe, etc. Stories like this typically make headlines and the entire world gasps that “an American journalist” would be taken prisoner.
I believe a free press is necessary and journalists do play an important role in our society. However, I know that James wanted to do international reporting and that job comes with inherent risk.
Did James think he would be taken prisoner? Probably not. Did he likely know the possibility existed? You bet.

I am praying for James to return safe, but I think there is a great lesson in his story: know what you are signing up for.

Niche journalism has definitely arrived in the field and it is here to stay. Some people are great food writers, movie reviewers and then we have journalists who thrive on politics and love sitting through House sessions. For me, that is like watching paint dry. On the other hand, if there is crime scene tape, blood spatter and a body, I want to be the first on the scene in the thick of it all. I have a few friends who even got out of the business because they couldn’t do crime.

The likelihood when you start off reporting is that you will be a general assignment reporter and cover it all. Then, some people naturally find their fit as an investigative journalist, a political reporter, consumer reporter, etc.

I think before someone specializes in a niche they really need to ask themselves a few questions. For example, if you are thinking you want to cover the military and wars, you might ask yourself:

1) Would you be willing to be an embedded reporter and travel to Iraq or Afghanistan?
2) Do you want to spend time on military bases and likely be interviewing generals, strategists, etc?
3) Did you know that there are handbooks on military titles and how people should be supered in broadcast work and how to abbreviate for print?
4) Are you willing to travel far?
5) Are you willing to learn about international affairs?
6) Are you willing to deal with the red tape that goes along with getting access to bases and officials?
7) Would you be willing to live overseas and/or be away from home for long periods of time?

Every person needs to use critical thinking skills before committing to a certain job. I cannot speak for James Foley, but I have no doubt the dangers of heading to Libya crossed his mind before he got aboard a plane there. The obvious thing to keep in mind is to never do anything you are not comfortable doing.

Jacqueline Ingles is a multi-platform reporter for KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas. She writes, shoots, edits, fronts her story and then provides a more in-depth story version on her station’s web site daily. She founded the blog “In Ingles Please” in early 2010. A native of Chicago, Jacqueline received a master’s in broadcast journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She also graduated Summa Cum Laude from Loyola University-Chicago

As many of you are aware, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, which will air until Feb. 28 on NBC, debuted Feb. 12 with the opening ceremonies. Earlier that day, luger Nodar Kumaritashvili from the country of Georgia died in a luger crash during a practice run. Somewhere between his death and the opening ceremonies, a video of his death was shown. Specifically, the video was shown on major TV networks, including NBC.

According to an Associated Press article, viewers were outraged by the footage shown just moments before the opening ceremonies.

I cannot tell a lie. Even though I’m a journalist and fully support that whole “freedom of the press” thing, watching that video was quite disturbing, even though it only lasted a good five seconds. And if you could have seen my facial expression when I saw the footage…Sigh.

As a newcomer to journalism, you’re going to be faced with these “Is it right for my newsroom/newspaper/TV station to published this content” issues and other ethical concerns (like, for the love of God, this one) all the time, if you haven’t already.

So I ask for your opinions, journalism Gen-Jers: Was it ethical for NBC and other TV networks to broadcast Kumaritashvili’s death? Was it insensitive, or was it journalism’s doing its job, which is to inform the public?

(Cross posted at the International Journalism blog)

Brett Junvik is only 26, but he’s already traveled around the world telling stories of impoverished people and the international aid groups that assist them. To accompany his piece in the January/February issue of Quill, the young filmmaker made this video short to share his experience with others looking to do the same.

“Let us become a community of journalists that build relationships and bridge cultures,” says Junvik in the video, “storytellers that are truly for the people.”