Reporting Covid: ITV Channel reporters look back on the last year
After a full year of reporting about Covid-19 in the Channel Islands, we asked our On-Screen Journalists what it has been like and which moments stand out for them.
Jess Dunsdon
"Very early on in the pandemic, I became aware that for the first time in my working life, us journalists were living the story we were reporting on 24/7. It certainly brought home the importance of impartiality, as it became clear that individuals had very different views on the governments' handling of coronavirus. Everyone was affected in different ways - some were separated from loved ones when borders closed, some had underlying health conditions meaning they favoured more stringent restrictions, some had the worry of vulnerable parents as cases spiked, while others had to shoulder the exhaustion of juggling work and childcare when schools and nurseries closed. But the main takeaway is how all consuming this year has been - living, breathing and reporting coronavirus. It's been a privilege, but I certainly can't wait for a more normal news agenda to resume."
James Webster
"About ten years ago, there was a drama on TV called 'Flash Forward'. The premise was people getting a brief glimpse at their future lives. I've often wondered what we would have thought if, in 2019, we had been able to 'see' just 12 months ahead and hear some of the words in our news programmes. Quarantine, isolation, social distancing, a ban on household mixing; it would have sounded like the most far-fetched Hollywood movie, yet this was the reality. These were the words we were using every night in our studio. Very quickly we became acutely aware of the need to get the tone of what we were saying right. There was important information to get across but we didn't want to over-sensationalise - we didn't want to cause panic. And through it all we hoped to find a reassuring warmth at a time when we all needed to feel there was a hope for better times to return. I really hope we got it right."
Clare Burton
"I was standing outside a St Helier care home, reporting on shortages of PPE in the early days of the crisis when it really hit me. Seeing the frightened and confused faces of residents inside. Hearing the fears of exhausted workers who felt exposed and vulnerable. And interviewing the home's manager (from a two metre distance of course) and seeing the tears of frustration in her eyes as she described the substandard kit they were using. I have relatives in care homes in the UK. I know how difficult these places are to run, and to make everyone feel safe and comfortable at the best of times. I know that isolating dementia patients in their rooms, and limiting their human interaction, could see their brain function diminish, and their muscles waste. I know that care staff work long and hard to keep our loved ones safe - but many cannot survive on that wage alone, and have second jobs in hospitality to make ends meet. I spoke to one worker who was isolating away from his young family, and staying away from his restaurant (now takeaway) job because he wanted to ensure he didn't put anyone at risk. He was losing out financially by doing the right thing. Despite all the efforts and the sacrifices we now know, many care homes lost several much-loved residents to this dreadful disease. I know we don't clap for carers anymore, but I really hope we can find ways to show them, and all frontline workers, how much we appreciate everything they've done for us and our loved ones over the last year."
Gary Burgess
"To say the past 12 months has been a year like no other for me would be a spectacular understatement. Just as, for all of us, normal life has been turned upside down, the way I report the news has changed dramatically. Recording interviews on Zoom, Skype, Facebook Messenger and even WhatsApp video are now routine parts of my day. Interviewing people while I hold a microphone attached to a two-metre-long pole now seems strangely normal. And asking questions of the Chief Minister at ‘those’ press conference via my laptop computer while sitting in my own front room at home is routine. They’re all reminders of the ways the pandemic has changed everything, but fundamentally the past years has been about telling a story that unites us all. Never before has one story affected literally ever man, woman and child in one way or another. Meeting those shielding. Speaking to the relatives of whose sick or dead. Being a voice for people suddenly out of work or facing the collapse of their business. It’s a daily privilege and responsibility to report on the many facets of Covid, and it is one I take very seriously. But amid all that, it’s been very important to highly the moments of light relief: linking up via my laptop with a family as they celebrated Liberation Day in style, even during lockdown, and finding time to report on the possibility of Love Island coming to Jersey are just two random examples. It’s been a year where constants matter, and being able to come together, across the islands, at 6pm each night to see how we’re all doing during good times and bad is something special that I never, ever take for granted."
Caroline Lewis
"Three days after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Jersey, I arrived to start a new job and a new life in the Channel Islands. Two weeks later, I was standing outside the hospital reporting that the first person had sadly died; a responsibility I felt was massive. I wasn’t the only person in the unknown - we all were, but it was our job to keep the public informed in this incredibly fast-changing and unpredictable situation. It’s very hard to switch off from the news when you are living and breathing it all day every day, and there have certainly been some low moments over the last year, but doing my job has been a great privilege. I have yet to know the Channel Islands not in a global pandemic, but at its worst it has been glorious and I am so excited about the better days ahead."
Sophie Dulson
"When I became a Journalist, some 7 years ago now, I never quite anticipated reporting on one of the biggest public health crises the world has ever seen. It's safe to say it definitely came with many ups and downs. Attempting new ways of working alongside teething problems with technology has been challenging, but as the cliché says, "every cloud comes with a silver lining". For me, that was being able to provide a trusted public service in the midst of a health crisis. Being able to tell everything from the the hard-hitting stories, to the uplifting community spirit that radiated throughout the Island. ITV Channel covered it all; the good, the bad and the ugly, and I’m proud and incredibly privileged to have worked for such a service during what has been one of the most difficult years for everyone."