An Evening of Conversation for Women in Media

Respecting Individual Privacy and Quest for News

On Wednesday evening, June 27, Murray Hill Institute hosted its first Evening of Conversation for Women in Media. Melissa Tamplin, a broadcast journalist and author, spoke on “Respecting Individual  Privacy and the Quest for News.”  Melissa gave us a compelling account of why this topic has special relevance for her.

Melissa began her career working for a television station in Abilene, Texas, and quickly found herself in front of the cameras—a news anchor at age 21. Working her way up through larger stations, she subsequently reported for television stations in Waco, Texas, and later in Jackson, Mississippi and Birmingham, Alabama.  As a reporter of breaking news, she was frequently on the “front lines,” often interviewing family members of victims, or survivors of violent crimes and accidents.  Then one evening in the middle of hosting a dinner party, she received the phone call that changed her life: a close family member had been the victim of a tragic crime.

In the subsequent months, Melissa faced all of the grief, shock, and anger that follow in the wake of personal tragedy.  In addition she had to make a decision about her career, wondering whether she could or should return to front-line reporting.  Determined not to let the tragedy define her life, she overcame her own self-doubts as well as those of her colleagues and found herself once again reporting on the local news.  Now, however, she found that her personal experience had given her insights into ways to bring light and compassion to bereaved families she was interviewing.  At times this could be as simple as saying you are sorry before beginning the interview; at other times it meant saying  “no” to a producer’s push to go back and ask a grieving family for yet another interview, after they had already said no the day before.  She began discovering ways to honor the deceased person rather than just focusing on details of the crimes. Melissa found that families often appreciate a memorial gesture, for example, a story that reveals the unique and positive aspects of a person on an important anniversary of their death, and that this sometimes means fighting to get this on the air if other news is perceived as “newer.”

The journalists in the audience, many of whom are in the early stages of their careers, had many questions for Melissa.  After the lecture, a lively idea-sharing session moved over a wide variety of topics, including opinions on the reporting of the Virginia Tech shooting, differences between print and television reporting, and whether one could or should say “no” to an assignment based on moral reservations.  Our next Evening of Conversation for Women in Media will take place this fall. Be sure to check the Murray Hill Institute website for details to come.

Alice Trimmer