Trusting your newscaster.

I am one out of six students who have been picked to attend a dinner where Peter Mansbridge will speak. I am beyond excited about this opportunity and want to share the question I  ‘figuratively’ asked Peter Mansbridge:

As a novice journalist I am just beginning to have my first experience with telling sensitive stories,  such as the St.Amant radiothon story I am writing for The Lance this week. As I’m confronting these different stories I begin to question what part does emotion play in journalism, especially broadcast journalism.

My question for Peter Mansbridge would be how do you deliver the news or tell someone’s story without losing control of your own emotions and remain poised? Is it possible to separate yourself emotionally from the story you’re telling, especially if it’s some sort of world tragedy like war or natural disaster?

As a kid I would sit down and watch the news with my dad every chance we got. We even watched the news while we were in different provinces or states enjoying summer vacations together. I always looked up to broadcast journalists as someone who can be trusted and someone who can be counted on.

And even today at this age when I think about it, it’s still true to a certain extent. People have favourite broadcast journalists, people that they have grown to trust and want to hear the news from. With this comes a lot responsibility especially if you’re reporting on a national level.

I think Peter Mansbridge is an exceptionally smart guy and he is the newscaster who I trust the most. I just find these relationships between the person delivering the message and me the person receiving the message extremely interesting.