On Monday the 11th of February I tackled yet another challenge set by the university, a 12-hour day! As comical as this concept may seem, for someone who lives an hour off of campus, this really hit me like a truck. All for the purpose of a guest lecturer, who wanted to talk to us about the seriousness of reporting terrorism.
As a journalist in training, I honestly hadn’t considered going into terrorism reporting, and after this lecture I definitely won’t be looking into it for the future. David Anderson was an incredibly interesting man, who made a lot of valid points, however all he really did is scare me straight.
He did however address the fact that generally, terrorism reporting is a huge part of becoming a journalist in out current day and age. With the last attack in the UK being in 2017 with Manchester, and then a follow up ‘copycat’ attack in London. This is extremely important to bear in mind, that no matter what industry journalism takes me into, I will likely report terrorism in some way or another.
I’m just lucky enough that I have the knowledge now, from Mr Anderson, to stay well away from reporting terrorism from another country. That is where it becomes very dangerous. His lecture taught me a lot, and was a real eye-opener to how risky this profession can be! Especially if you aren’t careful.
It was also really interesting to see so many industry outlets attending this public lecture, including those from BBC World News, ITV and BBC Essex. Even though this was a long day for me, In reflection It was very interesting and absolutely worth my time.