Arrested! How Journalists Report on Crime Series

I'm Anika Palm and I'm with the Orlando Sentinel and when you're first starting out as a reporter one of the things that they might assign you to do is to work on the crime desk. And on the crime desk you will work you will have to cover people that have just been arrested. And sometimes that can be a lot of fun and sometimes it can be difficult. People who are arrested are sometimes you'll find that they are absolutely willing to talk to media and they want to tell you precisely how not guilty they are and all the other people that could have possibly committed the crime. Other times you'll find that they just don't want to talk to anyone and you'll end up talking to the arrested person's mother or sister or next door neighbor all of that can happen and so you'll have to be willing and open to talking to anybody to get your story. This series has been created to help aspiring journalists. As a crime reporter there are many things that you will see, learn and do that generally are not taught. These are a few tips from someone who's covered arrests throughout Central Florida.