Thoughts for Students/New Reporters

Thoughts for Students/New Reporters Students/New reporters: 

You are embarking or have just begun on a path in a profession that some of you may still not realize what you’re getting into.   This profession is going to introduce you to some of the nicest, nastiest, best, worst, craziest and on and on and on people in the world.  One never knows what the day holds when they head to their jobs.  Whether you’re in court, freelancing or working in one of the fields for the hard-of-hearing, each day is a new day and most of the time, the case or hearing or whatever is different from the day before.  Unless you’ve worked on the case before, one doesn’t know just exactly what to expect.   

If you’re working in court, as we’ve seen over the last year or so, there could be a wild man on the street or in the courthouse that has decided he wants to kill people.  If you’re working in the freelance market, you could be working on a family matter case that turns very ugly.  If you’re working in the captioning field, you could be the “lucky” one to have to caption something like the World Trade Centers falling down.  You could be in a hearing or a deposition where the graphic nature of the testimony just turns your stomach so that you want to be sick, whether it’s a murder case, an accident or whatever. If you’re in court, the record that you’re making could be something that you think is not very important, but put yourself on the other side where the parties are sitting.  This could be the lifeblood of their existence or something very crucial to their livelihood or could mean they go to prison or not.  Have you ever thought about that?  We just sit there quietly and do our jobs, but put yourself in the shoes of one of the parties sometime and see if that doesn’t make what you’re about to get into or are currently doing just a bit more important. 

None of the above mentions are what you signed up for, but that’s always something that is a possibility in our profession.   The point I’m making here is that this profession and what we do is very important.  All of the seasoned reporters in the field could probably give you at least one exampe of just how important their job is by reciting some story like ones I’ve mentioned above.  You just have no idea how important sometime before you get to the job. 

If some of this is scary to you, it’s meant to be …… in a kind way.  Most of the reporters that start out in this field are in their early 20s…..now, that’s not to say all people are in their 20s when they do this……but the point I’m making is that because of the age, I think that sometimes you don’t realize how important your job is because you’re still young and happy-go-lucky and are still learning about things in life and may not have the cares about what you do as the more seasoned reporters do. As the older reporters get even older, we need to make sure that those after us feel the same importance about the job as we have come to.  If this means I feel compelled to write an article like this as a wake-up call, then so be it.  That’s exactly what this is.  I’ve discussed with many of my friends about the profession and where it’s headed and we want to make sure that the hands we leave this profession in understands the importance of the job. 

Now, before I make a few suggestions here, I am just as guilty as all of you students and newbies in not necessarily having the care about the profession as I do now.  Sure, I knew what I was doing was important, but looking back, I realize now just how important our craft is.   I’d offer a few things here that I think will help you as you progress through school as well as begin your career. 

1.  Alcohol or drugs should NEVER be consumed during the day, either before, after or during your job.  One should never, ever be in a hearing or a depo and consume alcohol or drugs during the lunch break or any other time.  I can say that after a long day or a hard week of work that I might want to toss one back to relax, but I have NEVER done that during the day….either before a job or hearing or during the lunch break or any other time.  NEVER.  This is totally not acceptable.  You are putting all of us at risk….that’s right, all of us….by doing this.  This profession is too important and we all rely on each other to protect it.   2.  Improve youself in what you do.  What I mean by this is that don’t just settle for getting out of school and never doing anything else to improve yourself.  The exit speeds at which you graduate are just the tip of the speeds that you are going to experience in the field.  Strive to get a higher certification.  Strive to improve you writing accuracy.  Strive to have the confidences to provide realtime to counsel upon request.   I’ve said this before:  “If you’re not trying to promote yourself or the profession, you’re killing all of us.” 

3.   Avoid reporters that have lost the desire to want to do better.  You may run across reporters who have lost the “desire” to want to do better or tell you that you do not have to do anything to improve yourself.  Do NOT listen to this. 4.  Avoid other students who want to gossip…..and even avoid reporters who do the same….about other students or reporters.  If you run across this, try to turn it into something different.  Don’t get caught up in school about who’s doing better or who isn’t.  You worry about your place in the school and what you’re doing.  If your best friend in school leaves you in the dust, congratulate them and then get to work on what you’re doing to catch up.  It’s not their fault just as it isn’t your fault.  Everyone advances at different speeds.  That’s just how it is.  

5.  Because of the nature of our profession, you want to be careful about how you talk about what you’re doing.  Remember, some of this stuff is important to someone and although a lot of it is public record, I think that the less it is talked about by you, the better you look to your clients and others in the profession.  I think you can mention that you worked on so-and-so case, but to get into a bunch of graphics or specifics may not be the best thing to do. 6.  Many times, attorneys are going to ask you during a break in the proceedings, “What do you think about this?”  Well, that is a tough thing to deal with.  While you’d love to say all kinds of stuff, you probably want to avoid a full discussion on the testimony, because you never know if that attorney might say later in the day, “Well, the reporter said……..”  Then, your impartiality could be called into question. 

There are a ton of other things that I could say and there are even ethics put out by NCRA as well as state associations on many other matters about how to conduct yourself, but there are just a few things to think about along the way as you prepare yourself for a wonderful career. I’m hoping that others in the field will be able to offer other suggestions to students that they know or have an influence on. 

Lastly, hang in there.   You can do it and best of luck.  Make us all proud. (tipping hat)

This entry was posted on 3. March 2010 at 10:39 and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.