Virginia TV Shooting Shakes News Crews

The murder of two journalists during live television last Wednesday is causing worry among newsrooms in the U.S., CNN reports.

The incident has also made reassessing security issues related to conducting live reports from remote places.

Although experts claim that there won't be an extensive shrinking in live reporting, rumors say that some stations are trying to restrict doing remote live reports for the mean time.

Vester Flanagan, 41, shot Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27, while they were broadcasting on live television for WDBJ. The attack brought panic into newsrooms because the incident could have happened to any crew.

According to CNN, a St. Louis reporter for KMOV, Alexis Zotos, wrote on her blog on the night of the incident that she could have been Alison. Journalists like Alexis felt a kind of anxiety after the shooting and because of this anxiety station managers have sought advice from police departments. They also sent their staff messages assuring their staff that they will do just fine.

In Indianapolis and Boston, officers checked into newsrooms.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Grady Judd from Florida offered the services of his deputies to escort journalists during their live shots, which is something that is not commonly done nowadays.

Although TV crews usually practice safety tips and sometimes experience a few problems such as stolen equipment, riots or interruptions in live news events, their security people are there to go and assist them. However, experts cannot exactly recall an incident similar to the Virginia news shooting.

Jeff Halliday, a former reporter now a professor in Virginia, said that the killer obviously intended to kill his subjects during a live shot since these are usually "less controlled environments". He added that the incident had made reporters think about their vulnerability especially when doing a live shot.

Unfortunately, due to cost cutting measures by news companies, having added security personnel during live shows is less likely.