The tragic events at Virginia Tech earlier this week will take their own place in U.S. history. Alongside the Asian Tusnami and London’s 7/7 bombings, the reporting of them may also come to be seen as a defining moment in participatory or citizen journalism. I was struck by a number of issues newsrooms had to confront.
Does mainstream media’s promotion of citizen journalism encourage risk-taking?
The iconic video from Jamal Albarghouti — was submitted to CNNs i-reports citizen journalism project. Widely lauded, it nevertheless led observers including lhe Philadelphia Daily News’ Ellen Gray to ask whether the lure of recognition by traditional media is prompting citizens to take unnecessary risks.
Is there a risk of repeating unfounded rumours found on the social web?
Facebook the social networking site which focuses on students was the forum for many tributes to those killed. And friends struggling to make contact via phone were able to check whether students were OK via their Facebook pages. But social networking sites like Facebook were used by bloggers attempting to establish the identity of the killer and a Virginia Tech student whose online profile in LiveJournal graphically illustrated his penchant for guns, found himself the target of much abuse. Wired made the observation that mainstream media had not named the accused but this changed when he later turned to traditional media to clear his name.
Does the advent of social media render censoring of material on the grounds of taste irrelevant?
NBC agonised over screening parts of the killer’s ‘multimedia manifesto’ and attracted criticism. But seasoned bloggers like Dave Winer point out the tendency for such material to end up on the Web eventually anyway. Winer advocates allowing citizens to make up their own minds whether to watch or not.
How should journalists handle requests to use material from social media?
On photo-sharing site Flickr a Virginia Tech Shooting pool was set up attracting a number of media enquiries about access to the images. If, as in this case, media requests are made via comments in discussions or blogs, the interested reader can see the newsgathering process in the raw. Journalists leave highly visible footprints and are going to have to learn to step lightly.
Are blogs and social networking sites ‘fair game’ for journalists looking for quotes?
The BBCs Robin Harman, whose personal blog is widely followed by journalists, was one of the first to start compiling eyewitness accounts from blog entries. Some of those he sampled found themselves being contacted directly by journalists for interviews, and some found that objectionable. Robin admits to being shaken by the experience and advocates greater sensitivity among journalists to what should be considered private at such times.
Do journalists have the skills to harness social media?
Amid the profusion of content sources and the huge volume of comment, Shane Richmond, community editor for the U.K.s Daily Telegraph, likened seeking original sources to looking for a needle in a haystack and references Paul Bradshaw’s call for journalists to become proficient in Technorati, YouTube and their like.
I’m not sure about the answers, I’m certain the questions aren’t going away. What do you think?
Mark Jones is Reuters Global Community Editor
Photo credit: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Trackback
51 comments so far
Previous | 3 | 2 | 1 | Next
If the video and images released by NBC contained images of the actual atrocities being commited, then I see why this is so controversial. The edited for TV version of the Matrix is more offensive than this video. If Cho didnt kill himself and he was brought to justice, would anyone be opposed to new networks covering his court testimony? The video is letting us know why it is he did what he did. It allows the public to evaluate what went wrong here, so that we as a society can actually do something about it instead of just figuring out what we are going to do when it happens again. Furthermore, I think even worse than NBC are the other news networks who are starting their newcasts off showing the same images and portions of video and following it up with a news story on how showing these videos is wrong and inappropriate.
- Posted by Brian GoeganThis travesty doesn’t really compare on a global scale to what is happening in Iraq and elsewhere, that is a given.
I’m still completely disgusted that NBC chose to release those hate-filled video’s and torment the victims families on broadcast TV day and night. It’s purely evil and wrong in a moral sense from my viewpoint.
But then again, my viewpoint is skewed. I grew up, lived 23 years in Blacksburg. No one wants their hometown to be turned into some sort of Serial Killer tourist stop.
- Posted by Stacy PuckettOnly 32 shot dead, and this is big news? That is the equivalent of a slow day in Baghdad. Over 3200 US soldiers, many college age kids, have been killed. Where is the outrage? Does the media focus on this Virginia tech killer and victims because they have video, where as the Department of Defense doesn’t allow them video of our dead soldiers.
- Posted by Rodney Lamprey, jr.I think it’s horrible! The media is giving him, the physco, exactly what he wanted! Airing his tape was in very bad taste! He wanted to be the “victim”, be famous and influence other disturbed individuals by glamourizing what he did! How many Copy Cats will spring up? I believe that there is one already in NC who brought a gun to school but only shot himself! The media feeds on these things for ratings and it is wrong! I glad that the families of the victim have refused NBC’s interviews, they don’t really care they are just exploiting them for ratings.
- Posted by ChrisI think the news media ought to be ashamed of themselves. There is absolutely no good reason why this sorry individual’s message should be broadcast even once, let alone repeatedly for days. To play the video and show the pictures while reporting on how the sight of these images have upset nearly everyone touched by this tragedy just adds to the lunacy of the thinking of the media in this country. Why not show video and writings of the victims instead? Perhaps because those would not boost ratings? A radio talk show host’s bad joke was an outrage, but broadcasting the rantings of a lunatic mass-mmurderer is acceptable? I find it all extremely hypocritical.
- Posted by EricI believe that those who are grieving should get the coverage - to honor and remember those who were lost and to grieve with them and support them. The less coverage we give the culprit, the better - except that we all naturally want to know, “why?”
- Posted by JenSo NBC Broadcasts this tape willy nilly (thereby setting the stage for copy-cat killers).
But airing similar tapes of al Qaeda touting identical objectives is deemed too gruesome for Americans?
The reason for this apparent conundrum? Airing the Cho tapes would add weight to the anti-gun lobby - a left wing agenda item. However airing the al Qaeda tapes is not in the interests of leftist philosophy - airing al Qaeda tapes would enrage Americans thereby adding support for the global war on terror.
- Posted by GrantWhat goes through the mind of the Media executives who undoubtedly met at each news organization prior to releasing this boy killers (he is no man)message to the world. Can you imagine seeing a picture of this individual pointing a gun at you after being involved or having lost a child? Can you imagine having your family members murderer get his two minutes in the sun via the blood hungry news organizations. This is not news, this is the enabling of a mad man in some misguided effort to understand what cannot be understood. The News Media in general has reached a new low as it continues to air parts of the murderers death message. As if the story without this infomation or the extrapolation of this information void pictures was not sufficient. The media decides to further horrify the students of VT and the parents and family suffering a horrible existence today. I am tired of the News Medias Vampire tendencies. Where there is death also must roam birth. Good and evil are equally compelling stories, why such a lust for death and blood. This story should have been squashed short of allowing this murderer to have his insane say-so. Blood thirsty News Media executives should be ashamed and perhaps will face the swing of the karmic hammer as a personal wound will have salt poured directly upon it. Shameful use of catastrophe to pump up ratings for a greater share of advertising revenue. Inhuman, unethical and socially destructive.
- Posted by ChrisPLEASE GET RID OF THOSE SICK IMAGES & VIDEO CLIPS OF THE VIRGINIA-TECH GUNMAN. WE DON’T NEED ANY MORE OF GROTESQUE MANIAC PULLING ANOTHER TRIGGER. WE’RE BEGGING YOU & NBC TO RECONSIDER PUTTING THOSE IMAGES ON THE WEB OR TV. IT’S SICKENING TO OUR SOCIETIES AND CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY. WE JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND WHERE YOUR RATIONALITIES ARE WHEN DECIDING TO AIR OR WEB THOSE CLIPS. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
- Posted by lunarmanIt seems as if the lure of the media coverage was an incentive for this killer to follow through on his mission. The coverage also approaches the criminal as a monster, rather than an individual who’s mental illness was triggered and exaggerated by societal values. The popularity of first shooter video games is an example of a societal phenomona which provides an outlet for the ’sane’ persons agression and anger. Why is it that the source of this anger is not addressed as news? Generations born in the 80’s and beyond do not know an American culture not dominated by corporate homogenity. The press should take the opportunity to report on the issues which induce the illness. As with preventitive medicine, the power of the voice and the focus of investigation can either heal or harm. Rather than taking initiative, the press has become both an echo and a leader in the perpetuation of the negative, a mere amplifier. The question of objectivity is a responsibility and is interwoven with the point from which the situiation is viewed.
- Posted by ABEYI see no redeeming value in airing the shocking video portraying the abnormal, violent behavior of this killer. Not only is it supremely disrespectful to the victims families and the Virginia Tech community, but it only gives widespread encouragement to other people who are unbalanced and may be urged now to act on their impulses. I don’t think the “public’s right to now” is served well at all with this coverage.
- Posted by debbie mcfaloneThe media outlets should be ashamed of themselves. All they have managed to do is once again glorify the ramblings of a lunatic. Does anyone feel more informed after seeing the videos, photos or writings of this nut? Absolutely not!!! Take the stuff off the air. All it is doing is giving him the notoriety that he so desired. Here’s an editorial idea, why don’t the media organizations take a long hard look at how they are exploiting tragedy and glorifying the killers and creating a social environment that breeds killers like this. Americans have this need for celebrity status and the news organizations are just feeding into this frenzy by glorifying every nutcase out there. Just report the news and move on.
- Posted by David Fwhen this happens again, i predict that the same exact methodology (ie using the media) will be utilized. This, as a media experiment, was unfortunately a raging success, as im sure Cho would agree. This can easily be avoided by not airing such absurd “manifestos”. But it seems ratings are far more important than lives…
- Posted by donI think the media should have said that a manifesto was found, then left it at that. Giving Cho a platform and showing others that that is how their voices can be heard borders on irresponsibility. Also, if the media lets Cho’s ramblings overshadow the fact that congress is finally getting testimony from Gonzales today - something many of us have been waiting a long time to hear - then they have failed to notice the historical implications of the unraveling of the administration’s web of deceit.
- Posted by Patty PWith regard to whether digital ubiquity of material on one medium (the Internet) changes the news editing criteria on another (television):
The answer cannot be “anything goes” because “all bets are off.”
Responsible people have an obligation to act responsibly. Only children argue that they should be allowed to do something because Billy can.
Does the medium matter? Of course. I can avoid anything I want on the Internet (even video, which I must select proactively play). But unless I am quick on the remote-draw or TiVo everything, TV immerses me in what its programmers want me to experience.
It used to be that news organizations risked doing irresponsible things for competitive reasons against only other news organizations — ABC has the tape so CBS might as well run with it. Bad enough. Now the argument is extended to the point that if it is on YouTube, it is fair game.
So why are news organizations not showing enemy videos of US forces being blown up, plentiful on the Internet, while simultaneously complaining that they can’t take pictures of body bags of our returning dead?
There may be a good answer why the Cho video has news value and blown up coalition forces do not. But that is the debate I want to hear — not the shrug, the upturned hands and the “Well, what can we do?”
- Posted by John C AbellWe are just idolizing these crazies. Next time it will be worst and the cycle of violence will continue. There’s nothing you can do to stop someone that is willing to give their life. Proven in Iraq!
- Posted by JizWhenever something like this happens I am reminded of the Don Henley song “Dirty Laundry” (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/don+henley /dirty+laundry_20042033.html) when I think of the media.
- Posted by David TWhy are we not equally saddened by the loss of American and Iraqi life in Iraq?
- Posted by Linda FidellYeah! It’s our fault that the lunatic killed himself.
Too bad not all losers take such easy ways out, although the loss of other lives is very tragic.
Can we move on now, please…news media…?
come on, Sanjaya lost last night. Let’s cover that now, please? Anything else…please?
- Posted by Rock OcasekThe question is whether the extensive news coverage, particularly by FOX, MSNBC, and CNN embolden other Cho-like individuals to committ similar or worse atrocities in order to gain the noteriety Cho has.
- Posted by Mark Ford