“Local news reflects the mood of a community. We tell the stories, we balance, we are in the community, we do our homework, we inform and share. It is award-winning journalism – it is done right.” – Gord Gillies, Global News Anchor, Calgary
Global News is committed to covering local news. We have a strong, committed team of news reporters and anchors who are connected and engaged: reporters who take pride in their city and in doing their job delivering stories with local context and lots of personality. The stories that matter to our viewers also matter to our Global News team.
WATCH: Anchors from Global News in Calgary and Edmonton remember the stories that impacted them personally.
The tough stories
Some stories are harder to tell than others. Getting information out to the public, both good and bad, is a responsibility the Global News team takes seriously.
“News becomes an instant essential service to those that need information and help.” – Linda Olsen, Global News Anchor, Calgary
The news anchors feel the pain of the people affected by the tragic stories they cover and go through the same motions of sadness, shock and horror the viewers do. Maintaining factual information and journalistic integrity is the team’s top priority.
“You’re sharing the news but you’re going through the situation with the whole city at the same time,” said Scott Fee, Global News Anchor, Calgary.
“You have to get the facts right.”
GALLERY: Taliyah Marsman and Sarah Baillie
“These are tragic stories of young people–Hailey, Taliyah Marsman, Nathan O’Brien. They absolutely crush you,” said Paul Haysom, Global News Anchor, Calgary.
WATCH: Tragic update in the search for Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette
“It is emotional,” said Global News anchor Linda Olsen on the five students who were killed at a Brentwood university party in Calgary. “I am feeling the same thing as the audience feels. I have a responsibility to be composed and get through so that the audience can get through it as well.”
WATCH: Parents of the victims of Calgary’s worst mass murder remember their loved ones.
On stories of inspiration
Global Edmonton news anchor Quinn Ohler started writing her blog after the tragic shooting of Const. Daniel Woodall and the deaths of Taliyah Marsman and Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette–all stories that she covered. She would go home at night crying because she was so affected by those tragedies.
But hard news stories are balanced with wonderful ones, like SpiderMable.
“These stories serve as a reminder that the world isn’t so bad. This is something that our viewers need, that I needed too,” Ohler said.
WATCH: The inspiring and true story of ‘The Amazing SpiderMable’
Edmonton news anchor Kent Morrison shares another inspiring story that personally impacted him, on Roan–a young Blue Jays superfan.
“He has a prosthetic leg but that doesn’t slow him down. I know what it is like to be a little kid and watch the Blue Jays doing so well. I am doing this story and thinking, ‘that is me when I was seven,’ but I didn’t have the challenges that he has. If the seven-year-old me could have met this little guy, I probably would have been a better kid.”
WATCH: This superfan is inspiring more than just Blue Jays fans.
As Global Edmonton anchor Erin Chalmers explains, sometimes inspiring stories sometimes result from tragedy.
“Watching our news coverage and seeing the devastated neighborhoods was heartbreaking and when residents returned to their city seeing the firefighters on the bridge, it was so inspiring!”
GALLERY: Return to Fort McMurray
A favourite inspiring story of Global Calgary anchor Amber Schinkel comes from local student, Doug Jarvis, and the people supporting him.
“Having his teammates rally behind him was so inspiring.”
WATCH: The incredibly inspiring story of Doug Jarvis and his teammates
Check out more on Global’s Stories that Matter:
News as an information pipeline