A first-year masters of journalism student got a chance to work with CNN host Anderson Cooper on Oct. 22 during the aftermath of the downtown shooting at the national War Memorial.
Ira Wagman, an associate professor of communication studies, said he was contacted after the shooting by a longtime friend of his who works for CNN in the Washington, D.C. bureau.
“He called me when the Parliament Hill shooting took place and he asked me if I knew someone, possibly a journalism student, who would be able to do some work for them,” Wagman said.
CNN needed somebody to go downtown to where the news was breaking, “because they didn’t have anybody on the ground.”
Not knowing anybody off-hand, Wagman asked journalism professor Paul Adams, who suggested student Kelly Hobson.
At the time Hobson was working as a teaching assistant in a third-year undergraduate class. She said the offer took her by surprise.
“Every voice of reason in my head said ‘no’,” she said. “But the journalist in me said ‘go, say yes to everything,’ so I agreed and that’s how I got hired.”
Hobson headed downtown and started freelancing.
“Some of the things I had learned in the classroom seemed easy on paper, but weren’t actually that easy when you get out on the street and start trying to do them,” she said.
“For example, you’re told as a journalist that you want information confirmed by authority figures or reliable sources, like police, so my first instinct was to approach the first police officer I saw,” Hobson said, laughing. “I got some really colourful language from him, and promptly scurried off.”
Hobson said her experience with CNN was positive.
“The people that I worked with from CNN were phenomenal,” she said. “They were patient, and I think a little amused, by my questions and my eagerness to hear about their experiences. They were very open about the experiences they’ve had in the industry and telling me anything I wanted to know.”
Hobson said she did anything she could to help the crew from CNN, including taking photos, live-tweeting, and gathering the latest updates. She detailed her experience in an article for the Canadian journalism project website, j-source.ca
“At one point they were setting up for one of their live anchor spots, I think it was Anderson Cooper’s coverage on Thursday night from 8-10 p.m., and they had me standing in the anchor spot, actually wired into the news room back in D.C.,” she said.
Hobson worked with the crew for three days and was paid as a freelance journalist.
“My experience, I think, was an anomaly,” she said. “It could have just as easily have been anybody else from my class in my shoes that day. It was a phenomenal experience and one I’m very grateful to have had, and one that I definitely won’t forget any time soon.”
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