Beyond the cordon
- 2 Jul 07, 11:30 AM
The events at Glasgow Airport brought home to people in Scotland the stark reality that terrorist attacks are not confined to England or to countries further afield. Nowhere is now immune.
Several of the many, many eye-witnesses who recounted their stories to the 大象传媒 began by saying they thought the scenes unfolding in front of them were linked to a road rage incident.
Gradually, they realised that they were at the centre of a drama which would shatter any notion that somehow Scotland was cocooned from incidents more commonly reported from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's never a good idea to spend time navel-gazing but for 大象传媒 Scotland, covering this story presented some extra challenges.
The News & Current Affairs Department is roughly halfway through moving from our old headquarters at in the west end of Glasgow, to a new base at on the River Clyde.
Our radio news operation was installed over the past fortnight at Pacific Quay and Saturday was the first online journalists' shifts there. Television will start the crossing later in July.
There's a close relationship between these three sets of journalists, who share information on stories. Under normal circumstances, the broadcast and online output would all come from the same place but until the move's finished, radio and online will be produced at Pacific Quay while television news is broadcast from Queen Margaret Drive.
In effect, we're running a dual operation for a few weeks at the same time as learning new digital production systems at Pacific Quay which will help us to improve and expand our news services.
Saturday evening saw rolling news coverage on 大象传媒 Radio Scotland followed by a two-and-a-half hour special programme on Sunday morning and another half-hour long one in the late afternoon. Television mounted a special Reporting Scotland programme on Sunday evening.
On our website, the on Saturday was clicked on nearly 1.5 million times.
Much of the 大象传媒's coverage was driven by user-generated content in the form of still pictures and video clips taken on mobile phones and e-mailed to us. Yet again, we saw how technology has changed the way news is reported.
Without this material, the scenes showing the blazing Jeep smashed into the terminal building would have remained unseen by anyone not present as the media's journey to the scene of the story was hindered by roadworks on the M8. Then journalists were held back by the expanding police cordon around the airport.
When reporters were able to talk directly to eye-witnesses, there was no shortage of those prepared to step in front of the microphones and cameras.
It's said that Glaswegians are natural story-tellers and despite the life-and-death nature of the situation, humour was still evident.
One in particular struck me. Airport worker John Smeaton spoke about having slipped outside for an unscheduled cigarette break during his shift. He heard the impact of the Jeep hitting the terminal building.
In a matter-of-fact way, Mr Smeaton explained that he ran towards a man who was said to be resisting arrest by a police officer and aimed a kick at him. Reflecting on his actions, his main concern was that he might be disciplined for leaving his post for a fly smoke.
Another exchange is worth repeating. I looked through the many pictures submitted to the 大象传媒 and sent texts back to those whose images had been used online and on television to thank the contributors.
Quick as a flash, one person replied and wrote back: "Nae bother, jist glad it wisnae worse. Any chance o' tickets for Knock Hill [a racing circuit in Fife] tomorrow?"
Sadly I couldn't oblige.
Update 1440: It's now been pointed out to me that has been set up in honour of John Smeaton.
Mark Coyle is 大象传媒 Scotland's continuous news editor
