News Safety Update 2#: Let's talk about Situational Awareness! SA is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening. More simply, it's knowing what is going on around you. @RTDNA @NPPA @rcfp @pressfreedom #tvnewsers
The concept of Situational Awareness isn’t something for spies or secret agents. Applying it to real world conditions is actually rather simple. Situational Awareness is keeping your head on a swivel, looking around to observe what’s going on, who’s there, what they are doing.
What is going on around you that might cause you trouble? If based on your observations and predictions, you feel unsafe, then Situational Awareness means you're able to make adjustments to what you are doing, like changing your body language, behavior or location, to be safe.
Cooper's Color Codes are a great way to remember levels of Situational Awareness. You want to be in condition Yellow when you're on location, in your vehicle, out in the field and even in the newsroom.
Condition White: Unaware and unprepared. If something dangerous occurs in this condition you will be caught off guard and not ready to rapidly react to escape harm.
Condition Yellow: Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation but relaxed awareness. Casually looking around and observing.
Condition Orange: Specific alert. You see something that you don’t like. Someone acting strangely or any other condition that could impact you or your crew. This could be projectiles thrown at a protest
Condition Red: This is the fight or flight phase! Protesters have started throwing bricks at counter protesters, one just landed next to us and smashed the live truck window. Is it safe any longer?
With this info, consider the OODA Loop! The “OODA Loop” is a method used by fighter pilots to process situational awareness information very quickly and decide what to do with that information. “OODA” stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act.
Position yourself for the best view of your area. Then, keep your eyes peeled to things that might be problematic to you, including things you already identified as out of place. When you do see something potentially dangerous, decide what to do and act on it.
OODA: Once you act closing the loop, start the OODA loop over again, always keeping awareness sharp
Practical Tips: Always try to position yourself or your vehicle for optimal observation. It’s easy to have someone sneak up behind you. If you use an object or position yourself with your back towards that object it reduces the chances of someone coming from behind.
The downfall to this is it may limit your escape routes should something emergent happen.
Sitting in a coffee shop or public area, always face towards the door and know where your exits are. These include normal entrance and exit doors and fire / emergency exits.
Keep your awareness by limiting distractions, avoid listening to music or other distractions.
If you are working in your vehicle try and park so you have optimal line of sight to all entrance points.
In a parking lot that includes the entrances where other vehicles can drive but also foot traffic and pedestrians.
After hours choose public, well illuminated areas.
Try backing into parking spaces instead of pulling in headfirst.
This gives you an easier escape compared to backing out of a space should you have to drive away quickly.
Looking is not enough. What are you seeing? Tricks for optimal observation include:
Don’t just observe at YOUR level, look above you and also at what’s on the ground.
Scan your surroundings in three levels: Above, YOU, and below level. If you are only looking at eye level into the distance, you may miss something suspicious at ground level - like flood waters rising around your news vehicle.
When you can’t keep your eyes scanning the area because you need to work, try to regularly glance up or around you. Look for changes and people around you. Is someone approaching? Are they walking, running, driving fast, revving the engine or driving erratically?
If you feel something isn’t right, make a decision and don’t second guess. OODA! There are some great videos and a downloadable worksheet of this info at the @RTDNA safety page. Hang in there my friends, Love to all of you! rtdna.org/article/safe_t…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Chris Post

Chris Post Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ChrisMPost

11 Jan
News Safety Update: Let’s talk gear! If you are going to be covering any kind of civil disobedience you will need protect yourself / your team (I’m looking at you newsroom mgrs) from potentially life threatening hazards to our peers. @RTDNA @NPPA @pressfreedom #journalistsafety
Realizing that we are a very short time from some major planned events that are ripe for civil unrest, obtaining these items could be difficult. I’m gonna focus on function and practicality. You need to have at a minimum head, respiratory and eye protection.
A ballistic vest is a nice thing to have BUT they can be hard to come by. Vests should be individual items and ordered based on a persons unique measurements. Also realizing the threat levels for the event you may be covering. If it’s a NSSE, the chances of someone sneaking
Read 18 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!