{"id":21092,"date":"2024-05-14T16:45:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T00:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=21092"},"modified":"2024-05-14T16:45:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T00:45:54","slug":"sidney-spencer-on-news-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/sidney-spencer-on-news-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Spencer on news reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Liberty Miller | Lifestyle Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Content warning: <\/b>this article contains mentions of homicide and shootings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sidney Spencer is a 2021 graduate from the University of Alabama and a current news reporter on CBS Channel 42, based out of Birmingham, Alabama. The Howl was able to get an exclusive interview with Spencer regarding her career, experiences in the field and words of advice she may have for Western students wanting to get into broadcasting and news reporting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about her upbringing and what brought Spencer into news broadcasting, she answered, \u201cI\u2019m from Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in the midwest, but my family is from the South so after I graduated high school in 2016, we moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Prior to me attending and graduating from the University of Alabama, I went to Western Kentucky University for a year and a half or so and ended up transferring to the U of A.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo describe me, I would say I\u2019m very shy, I\u2019m not the typical reporter, I\u2019m not this overly extroverted person, sometimes I don\u2019t even like to talk which is funny for a reporter. But I\u2019m very shy, very goofy, very fun, and my humor is a little off sometimes \u2014 I find anything funny and I tell people that, that\u2019s another characteristic about myself that people find funny because I don\u2019t take anything serious. To some people, that might be bad but I don\u2019t know. I find humor in everything, but still very shy and in person, super soft-spoken, when I\u2019m talking to people they say \u2018Huh? What are you saying?\u2019 and that\u2019s something I\u2019m still working on,\u201d said Spencer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI work at CBS42, here in Birmingham. This is my second station, so I\u2019m still kind of new to the industry three years in. My first station was in Evansville, Indiana. As soon as I graduated college in 2016 from the University of Alabama, I accepted a job at 44 News in Evansville. I signed a two-year contract \u2014 worked hard, and got out \u2013- and now I\u2019m here in Birmingham. My one year here will be June 12,\u201d said Spencer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer went on to discuss what she experienced growing up and how she became inspired to pursue broadcasting as a career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up just watching the news because me and my family are very close-knit, we would just sit at the table or in the living room watching television together. Our family was a family that would just watch the news, so I grew up watching Fox 8 and Channel 19, and I would see them and being super shy, I still thought that it was cool. I would see how they would show their personality, and it was kind of hard for me to show personality so seeing that, it was almost like they were forced to show who they are. I kind of just wanted to see if that would bring it out of me,\u201d Spencer said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, she added that she experienced a pivotal moment while watching a reality television series. \u201cI had a moment, I was watching Basketball Wives in middle school, and I can\u2019t remember her name, but she had long brunette hair and she was talking about getting into broadcasting. I was like, what is that? I remember watching the episode, and I went over to the computer in the kitchen and typed broadcasting. It came up as being a reporter and I was thinking \u2018Oh, that is what I want to be.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer then touched on challenges people can face in her career path. \u201cThis industry is very vain, so you may face some adversities when you get into the business. Appearance is a big thing. I\u2019m gonna keep it real \u2014 sometimes if you look a certain way you might get up higher and become a favorite. I probably have, I wouldn\u2019t say gained anything, but in a sense, some people might look at me and say she may have gotten a position because of the way she looks or because she\u2019s more poised, or something in that nature, but I will say this career is very vain.\u201d said Spencer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer\u2019s typical day is busy, with many work-related tasks transcending the hours she clocks in and out. \u201cI work night-side, which is a shift that I\u2019ve pretty much always worked. So I come in at 2 p.m., but I wake up around like 10 p.m. to do my makeup and hair, which is exhausting too sometimes. I usually spend around an hour, and if I don\u2019t already have story ideas from the day before or thought of, or texts from sources or anything, I sit and try to find some stories that I could do. I\u2019ll sometimes watch national stories and see if I can localize it, or look at my phone and look on Facebook. We\u2019re required to at least have two story ideas. Usually, everything needs to be a lead story, but sometimes we can do fluffy pieces or people and enterprise stories. I come into work around 1:50 p.m., sit at my desk and look over what I had written down. I go over to our conference table, we all sit down and have our pitch meeting -\u2013 we have two producers, two photographers, a news director, a meteorologist and two anchors. So all of us have to pitch stories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At Spencer\u2019s current station, CBS 42, she went into depth about how pitches are chosen at the conference table. \u201cSometimes, my stories don\u2019t get picked up, because news directors have their own view of what news is, and usually the news director just says \u2018no, I don\u2019t want that.\u2019 They\u2019ll usually have their own stories and pitches that they want in mind, and they\u2019ll just assign us to a story \u2014 if it\u2019s an event, then I\u2019ll sometimes make calls, and ask if there\u2019s anyone we can talk to. Usually, they say yes and we can get all of that lined up. If it\u2019s a story that they want us to pursue we\u2019ll then have to make calls and just call around to the people that we need to talk to. Whenever we get our stories together, what sticks, we\u2019ll go out, and I have a photographer that I\u2019ll go out with to shoot the interviews. We\u2019re required to at least have two to three interviews within our packages. We come back to the station or stay out in the field, depending on how far we are from the station. We\u2019ll edit and write out scripts, and then before we submit our package, we need to have our scripts in by 9:15 p.m. After scripts, I edit everything, put it together, and it needs to be on the rundown by 9:45 \u2013 9:50 p.m. Our photographers set us up and we do the live shot. Whatever our package is, we have to cut aside a bit of our piece for the morning, and then we also upload it onto our video platform, and we also have to write our web articles. We have a web team that looks over our articles in the morning and makes some tweaks, to make it more professional. I usually don\u2019t finish until 10:50 p.m. \u2013- but it’s nonstop work, a 24-hour thing, even though we don\u2019t really get paid for 24 hours.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer has covered a vast array of topics as an on-site reporter, working on topics varying from sports to community projects. She also speaks on difficult subjects including homicide investigations, crime and vigils. When asked about how she works with potentially troubling stories, Spencer stated, \u201cPersonally, I\u2019m not super religious but I am very spiritual. I\u2019m a Christian, so I pray every day and I pray whenever I\u2019m going into a hard story. I ask God to just help me to make the people that I\u2019m talking to feel better or to help them get through the situation and just put my feelings aside with it. With that though, I will say I\u2019ve done a lot of shootings \u2014 I\u2019ve witnessed somebody get murdered at my last station, I\u2019ve been around situations where the police shot at animals right next to me, and I almost got shot. Being in this industry will make you a little bit insensitive at times \u2014 so with that comes, at times when you\u2019re in a scary situation or a tough story, it’s not healthy, (you will) mentally just take yourself out of it or just pretend like it\u2019s not happening. When I do hard stories, sometimes it becomes too much at that moment, and I usually tell the photographer that I need a moment. If it doesn\u2019t hit me at the moment, it hits me a few days later. I usually go into it praying, and ask God to help me to not get too emotional, but still be empathetic and understanding of the situation. But with that, also asking for me to be a blessing to the people who are actually living that, and help them out in some way. I\u2019ve done shootings back-to-back, and murders back-to-back, going to vigils back-to-back, and I just think, let me just try to get this done, and try to be a blessing to the people that I\u2019m talking to. Then once the weekend comes around, I think, that was a hard week. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m coping with it healthily. As news reporters, we\u2019re not directly affected like those in the situation, but we are on the scene, right there with the first responders. As I said, at my last station, I witnessed somebody get shot and killed right in front of my face, and in the moment I had to walk away \u2013 it\u2019s not normal. A lot of us journalists and reporters are trying to learn how to cope with the situation. I have coworkers that I talk to and friends in the industry that I talk to all the time. I had a friend who worked at a competitor station to my last job, and she was there too during the shooting situation. We talked about it together and she took it a little harder at the moment, and I don\u2019t think it hit me until a few days later. We just bond \u2014 I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a trauma bond \u2014 not just over the tough stories but just the industry in general, and we just talk about the amount of work that we have to do with the pay that we have to deal with sometimes. If we didn\u2019t love it though, we wouldn\u2019t be doing it, because life is way too short to continuously be doing something that you don\u2019t like or you aren\u2019t happy with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Spencer also gave advice to Western students who aspire to pursue a career in news and broadcasting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say work hard, and nowadays, it doesn\u2019t seem like it but hard work pays off. Do your research and don\u2019t let anyone discourage you if you want to get into TV because pretty much anybody can do it. I don\u2019t want to say everybody can do it but if you work hard, and if you really have a passion for wanting to be in broadcasting and journalism you can do it. Every day is not smooth \u2013 I hear no at least six times a day and you have to have thick skin with that. If the story works out, that is good but sometimes stories will fall through. I\u2019ve had two or three stories fall through in one day, and it happens. You have to have tough skin to get through that. Don\u2019t let anyone tell you that you have to look a certain way or be a certain way. With that, you have to want to be a voice for people who may not have one. That is ultimately what we are, we work for the community, and we\u2019re not doing this for ourselves. It may come across as reporters just wanting to look pretty on TV, but that is not the case. You have to have a passion for talking to people, for one, because you\u2019re talking to people every day, and then you have to want to tell their stories. You have to learn that you\u2019re not always going to be liked. You\u2019re going to get pushback, especially when you\u2019re telling controversial stories, or you\u2019re telling stories of people that don\u2019t have a voice. You have to be willing to speak up for them because nobody else will.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n





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