Newscast #5 - Kierstin Lindkvist - Spring 2021

For the last show for WVU News, our special edition show called "Taking Aim: A Targeted Look at Gun Culture in America", I still really wanted to do a sports story and relate it to this topic. I thought long and hard about what WVU Athletics does to protect the safety of fans and staff, and I remembered we have implemented the NFL’s clear bag policy for the last five years. I was curious if they were going to make any revisions to the policy should gun laws change in West Virginia. Immediately, I started doing research to see if this was the case, and nothing has been officially posted yet. 

When I spoke to Shane Lyons for show week 4, I asked him what the athletic department was planning to do in addition to the clear bag policy to protect fans on game day. He told me that this was not just a University-related issue, but then they would work with Morgantown officials to make changes accordingly.  As far as my additional interviews went, I knew I had to speak not only to a Morgantown official, but I also needed to talk to fans this week. I needed to know how fans felt already attending games, and if revisions would make them feel even more safe coming to events.

It was more challenging to try and get interviews and b-roll during the game for my story. I would look around me to find individuals with a clear bag and then go up to them and talk to them. This worked well for me, but sometimes other fans got rowdy around me because of the game going on that getting sound bites that weren’t interrupted by fans cheering was hard. Sometimes I had to ask an individual to repeat their sentence because of the action around me. I was very excited that I still made the best of the rest this week. There were a lot of very competitive stories with compelling angles and topics. When it came to anchoring another student's story, I first went and watched what they put together and did my own research on the topic. I think that really helped with my delivery. 

Even though mine didn’t quite fit in the show rundown, I was happy to still be on set anchoring another person’s story and that mine would still be seen by future employers. Sports are a microcosm of society and are interwoven in so many parts of our day-to-day lives. There are ways to still talk about health, gender, sex, race, safety, etc. issues in the context of sports, and I wanted to show that this week. This is my last blog post as sports anchor. I wanted to thank the Reed College of media and specifically Professor Dahlia for allowing me to be a part of the first all-female sports team. Eden and I were the first, but I know we will not be the last.