ABSTRACT
Covering politicians can be frustrating because the candidates often skirt the real issues and get into name calling and personality assassination. Covering hard news, whether spot news or planned events, is the "meat and potatoes" of broadcast journalism, whereas feature stories are the "dessert." Press conferences present their own problems for news coverage. Of all of the press conferences available, those that deal with emergencies most readily blur the distinction between spot news and planned events. Unlike political and promotional events, emergency press conferences are hastily called with little advance notice. Emergency shelter locations may be given, providing a refuge for viewers. Many broadcast reporters like to individually interview the person holding the news conference either before the event starts or after it is over. To describe a virtual press conference, a good parallel within a university would be a distance education course in which the professor lectures to a digital camera.
