Forrest Sanders

Video Journalist
NewsChannel 5

Education

• Media Arts Electronic Media Communication 2007

Highlights

Forrest Sanders is a solo video journalist at NewsChannel 5 in Nashville. He solely handles the writing, photography, and editing of his feature pieces. He tells “good news” stories, often of people making a positive difference in their communities. Sanders is a 2007 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and was a part of the school’s student broadcasts, then-called MTTV. He started his career at WBKO in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He has covered the stories of Nashville since 2009, first at WSMV and then at WTVF. He has also done work for the national Scripps News outlet. He’s the recipient of 43 Emmy Awards for work he wrote, shot, and edited. He is an active member of the National Press Photographers Association and a four-time winner of NPPA’s national Solo Video Journalist of the Year in its Best of Photography competition. He is also a four-time runner-up for the national Ernie Crisp Photographer of the Year. He's part of the faculty for NPPA’s News Video Workshop, a weeklong annual bootcamp teaching photography, editing, and writing to journalists. Sanders believes in visual, emotion-driven storytelling that emphasizes the uniqueness of the person and situation at the center of the story. A somewhat unconventional path to news, Sanders decided he wanted to write, shoot, and edit stories after watching The Evil Dead in high school (it’s a long story). He thanks the Kentucky News Photographers Association for arranging for the governor to officially bestow him the title of “Kentucky Colonel.” This designation has made him, yes, Colonel Sanders.