Dan Hanson is a news reporter with a passion for sports. 的 运动比赛转播 grad spent years behind the scenes as a news director at KNDU-TV in Kennewick, 华盛顿, but he pursued 满帆’s online degree program to transition to on-camera news and sports reporting. 今天, Dan is using his new skills to interview state representatives and political candidates up for election, 报道当地的犯罪故事, 并为KNDU创造体育亮点.

Although Dan enjoyed directing, he always wanted to get into sports reporting and be on television. He signed up for 满帆’s online 运动比赛转播 program in 2019 to make the transition into on-camera work and get some insight into the specifics of sports reporting. He credits 运动比赛转播 Department Chair Rishi Barran with helping him find new opportunities and improve his work.

“Rishi really pushed me to be a better person and journalist. He actually helped me find a couple of places to go in case I didn’t continue working in Kennewick,丹说.

虽然他的专业是体育转播, the program’s content has translated to Dan’s news reporting at KNDU.

“[运动比赛转播 is] basically the same type of storytelling and writing [as newscasting],” he says. “Just instead of writing sports highlights or stuff like that, you're going out and you're telling someone's story. You're getting their story out there and giving them notoriety and a visual platform.”

Being well-prepared is crucial to Dan’s success at KNDU. 丹每天早上都会提出故事创意, then re搜索es the story that’s selected and figures out who he needs to interview and what questions he needs to ask them. He talks to multiple sources to show audiences multiple views of the issues at hand, 出去拍他的镜头, 然后上传并编辑他的视频剪辑. His manager double-checks Dan’s script to make sure the reporting is balanced and grammatically correct, then Dan records and edits his voiceover track and prepares for the evening newscast. He ends his day by writing an article to accompany the video clip of his story on KNDU’s website and shares the clip on his professional social media accounts.

Dan’s favorite part of being a reporter is the people he gets to meet, and sharing his reporting has helped some of the people he’s interviewed.

“(我写了一篇关于)a 消防队长 that has polycystic kidney disease and he needs a new kidney or he's going to go on dialysis and that'll be the end of his career… I put the story on my socials and his wife was telling me just the other day that that story has been shared anywhere from Iceland to the UK by her friends and has had over 1,200次观看和30多次分享. So he's getting out there and it's making people more aware that this guy needs help,丹说.

Dan’s commitment to re搜索 and balanced reporting has helped him stand out in his industry. He says that up-and-coming reporters should be ready to spend time making their stories airtight.

“If this is what you want to do, you're going to be working long hours. 你要研究，研究，再研究. 这是我能说的最好的话了. 研究. Back your back story up with statistics, data, soundbites, anything like that. 不是很多人都会开心的, 但是我的老板告诉我的, “多半是这样, if you didn't get somebody mad or debating your story, 那你可能做得不对.’”