Young people who dream of working in journalism love the idea of telling people’s stories, engaging in what is going on in the world and providing news for the public. Being curious and passionate is key as well as knowing a lot about current affairs and being interested in what is happening on our planet in general.
However, sometimes people forget that with that also comes the fact that news can be very draining, negative and emotional. Specifically, news broadcasting.
Working behind the scenes at one of the biggest broadcasting companies in the world, the BBC, can be very intense for a 24-year-old in times like these when horrible things such as the war in Ukraine happen.
I started working as an autocue operator at the BBC around 8 months ago. It is an amazing environment to be working in and I love being part of producing great, informative content for the audience. As an autocue operator, I am basically responsible for scrolling the script on a device for the presenter to read. I am in a room packed with technical equipment where everyone sits who is involved with the broadcast, making it all happen. Obviously, it is all eyes on the studio floor, so we need to listen to the director and presenter as well as the program at the same time. At times this involves making amendments to the script and ensuring I am on the right story.
As much as I enjoy the job a lot, certain stories affect me more than others and can make a long shift between 8 and 10 hours feel very draining. Hearing the screaming of a child that has been beaten to death by its own parents, a story I still remember from a couple of weeks ago, or most recently: husbands leaving their wives and children behind crying at the train station and videos of missiles striking civilian houses in Ukraine – those are moments that make a shift go by very slowly and make me leave work with my thoughts still occupied about what I had seen and heard.
News broadcasting is designed to inform people any time they tune into the program which means if nothing much is happening it can get repetitive. It also means that the video of the screaming child or the people in Ukraine is being played several times each program, usually at the top of the hour.
As a viewer, you can tune in and out any time you like. Once you feel you have seen enough, you just distance yourself from what is happening and maybe go back into your own bubble. But working there, that is barely possible.
I’ve been speaking to many journalists way before the war and all of them told me that the number one thing they do not like about the job is the fact that news can be so draining and negative essentially affecting you mentally and only now that I see it more first-hand, I really understand what they mean.
However, one of the senior broadcast journalists, Richard Forrest, told us during an interview, “I think I’m one of the lucky people, I can literally switch off (..) make the divide between work environment and the home environment (..) and also I think, here especially is the camaraderie we have amongst the team. I think that sort of helps as you can always have a chat with people and have each other’s backs.”
As someone who has been involved in some of the biggest news coverage such as the 9/11 attack or Michael Jackson’s death, he has clearly seen many tragic stories and described in a said interview how after a while you find it easier to cope with these things. (The video is available on our website and it tells more about his career path at the BBC.)
But not everyone in the industry can switch off as easily and especially with news coverage like in Ukraine, as someone who is new to the world of journalism, witnessing how a war in Europe breaks out in 2022, can feel surreal.
The tensions at the Ukrainian border before Russian soldiers entered the country were already high for weeks, but even people in the newsroom at work were not convinced that Putin would go to such drastic measures. Not only did he invade Ukraine, but he also killed many innocent people; destroyed homes, made people flee their country and caused chaos all over Europe. The most powerful leaders came together at several meetings trying to figure out what sanctions to put in place and what to do but it seems like Putin is not impressed by any of it.
Through all of it, behind the scenes at the BBC Broadcasting House, has been nerve-wracking and emotional. Directors speaking with correspondents in Ukraine off-air listening to their experiences of having to wear bulletproof vests and living in train stations capturing the reality of civilians.
The whole energy at work has shifted and people wonder what will happen next, what other steps is Putin going to take?
As someone who was born and raised in Germany, history and the consequences of war have been taught to me in school from very early on. As Germans, we are still ashamed of our past although the generation of my mother and obviously myself, did not even live back then. However, when being confronted with said past in history lessons or when you visit holocaust memorials, as a German you cannot believe how people could be so evil and insane enough to be causing so much suffering to millions of innocent people.
And as much as World War 2 was a completely different dimension, this war in Ukraine is unpredictable and scary.
My grandmother had to flee from the eastern part of Germany all the way down to the south as Germany was invaded by Russians after Hitler started the war. My great grandfather was forced to fight, but he was not a supporter of Hitler and his dictatorship so when he refused to fight, he was told they would kill his whole family if he did not go to war.
My grandma was a small child when she was fleeing with her mother and siblings on a horse carriage in the coldest of winter months. She remembers: “Back then my mother decided she would not stay as she knew the Russians were close by. She ended up being right as once we were fleeing, they were only around 3 to 4 kilometres behind us. They were so close we could hear the bombs clearly.”
But my grandma’s cousins and her aunt decided to stay longer as they did not believe Germany would be in danger. My Grandma told me, “The news propaganda was all we had access to. According to the radio, there was no risk for anybody so my aunt believed she would be safe. A few days after my mother; my siblings and I were sitting on that horse carriage, they were captured, brought to Siberia and were made war prisoners.”
Keeping in the back of my mind how scared my grandma must have been back then when I sit at work and watch how the Ukrainians leave their homes and flee the country, it makes me really emotional to see how worried all those people must be when they get to the borders in Poland not knowing what to do next – just like my grandmother’s mother when she was fleeing on a horse carriage with four small children.
Being confronted with all this negativity in my workplace, it proves that as much as you try to remain professional, news is simply personal, and it is human to feel more emotional about some stories than others. The support and empathy had been immense at work, but it does not take away the fact that ultimately, we all feel like we cannot do much to actually change the situation. And that’s what is scary.
At work, our boss proposed to us autocue operators that when certain videos and scenes are shown we cover the small screen next to our device in order to be confronted with it less. I thought it was a good idea for moments in which very extreme clips like violence or blood are shown.
Ultimately, it is important to look after yourself and I’ve learned that once I am done working, I try to stay off the newsy side of social media. I often watch tv shows that are very light and fun to watch like family sitcoms that I obsessed with when I was a little child like the 80s show Full House. I also listen to music, go to the gym and spend time with people I care about. Exchanging feelings with people at work also helps because as much as you want to distract yourself, actually opening up and giving your thoughts and feelings space to be discussed can also make you feel better. On top of that, with all the access to different types of videos online, it is important to be empathetic to people and with journalism being about people and their lives, it can hurt at times to see that but it is important to also raise awareness and be supportive of one another.
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