BBC Oxford Breakfast - 'strong and stable' reporting.

 This morning, the 'Family of the Week' prepared to be on BBC Oxford Radio. My husband caught the train. My daughter sneaked in a quick game of 'Swashbuckle' on the Ipad. I scarfed down some breakfast. What would we talk about today? Our pet fish Carrot Cake is one today, so perhaps that. I'll be teaching later, maybe we can talk about that. But, of course, this is not what we talked about.

​An explosion in a public place, claiming lives, has a huge impact on everyone. There is that odd mixture of anger, sadness,  grief and relief that is hard to process. I found myself going from 'We're going to fetch a present for the fish', to responding to a major incident on BBC Radio. It made me realise what a responsibility and power the media holds in this kind of situation. It's power to induce panic, or reflect rationality and hope.

​The Team at BBC Oxford did a great job this morning, as they encouraged people not to panic and to try to keep perspective. They shared stats about the chance of being in an attack like the one in Manchester (winning Euros Millions twice in a row). I talked about the impact of events like this on the brain. You can hear me here:

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