The Virginia tech shootings have been a defining moment for citizen journalism, as Reuters Community Editor Mark Jones writes about here. They also, once again, raised the question in many peoples minds about how far the media should go in reporting details.
Weve received a number of thoughtful letters on the subject, and heres a sample.
- I am sadden to see Reuters promoting the senseless acts of the Virginia Tech terrorist… Talk about it, talk about why, in hopes of preventing this sort of thing in the future, but do not play his videos or display his photos.
- With the help of the news media, [Cho Seung-Hui] has achieved his place in history… It was NOT necessary to disclose Cho’s video. NBC had a choice.
- Those of us seeking solid news do not need to be greeted with this visual. Please have respect for those who are suffering most and remove these disgusting images with those of just Cho’s face.
As a curious reader and as an editor, when something horrible happens Im drawn to find out as much as possible.
But as a person, I, also, often recoil at the sheer weight of the horror and sometimes the accumulated graphic detail does seem too much. It isnt a line thats easy to draw. Our obligation as journalists is to tell the story completely. Our obligation as people is to avoid going overboard.
I believe that the videos the shooter took of himself and the pictures of him holding the guns help make the story immediate and complete. They provide insight into his mind and his world. But I too found a point where I simply couldnt watch any more; I too found a point where any added detail was superfluous.
It isnt an easy line to draw, but its one that we and you have to wrestle with.
When have we told a complete, fair story? When have we given our readers the facts and the data they need to understand what happened? When is it enough? We debate these questions ourselves, but we find the comments you send fascinating and valuable.
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I was looking for a place to make a comment regarding Cindy Sheehan and her quest for peace. I feel for her. She realizes that America is not what she thought. I have also realized this. We are a country driven by money. The reasons for this war are so many it boggles the mind. We are at war for corporations/business to continue to make a profit. We are at war for President Bush’s quest to continue profitting from oil production in the middle east, and he hopes to provide places out there for his buddies and his family to continue to profit since America’s oil supply is dwindling. America has no time to go out and protest a war when we are barely able to make ends meet with our low salaries and very little leave time to do so. I wish there were corporations out there that would sponsor an end to the war. Perhaps we can then stop work and life to go out and protest. I wish politics did not play a part in Politics. Unfortunately, it does. I was also highly crazed to see that the democrats had to buckle under President Bush’s threats of veto. MY BIG QUESTIONS ARE THESE: WHY HASN’T THIS MAN BEEN IMPEACHED FOR WAR CRIMES, AND HAS ANYONE REALIZED PRESIDENT BUSH’S CONFLICT OF INTEREST, OIL, AS BEING THE REASON FOR THIS WAR? I want to screem at the top of my lungs about American problems. We have lots of social issues, and America has been lulled into a false sense of democracy and freedom. We are not free, we are slaves to the American military and the American Tax system.
- Posted by Frances ValdesI do agree with Reuters Community Editor that as journalists we are obligated to tell the full story to te public. They deserve to know the truth. Though this is so, journalists do tend to overstep their boundaries in the name of “reporting.” It is hurtful for family and friends of those that died as a result of Cho’s actions. Yes time cannot be reversed so that some things are undone but even as we seek to report let’s not be insensitive.
- Posted by Diana NgilaWhat happened in Virginia Tech School was a sad tragedy.
Cho Seung Hui was a frustrated young man who was emotionally disturbed but got little or no attention from his family or friends.
Instead his so called friends worked hard to make him feel that he never belonged and that he was weirdo.
If they had helped introduced him to a few girls, perhaps, instead of alienating him as they did, this sad tragedy might have been avoided and the 32 students he killed would still be alive.
And it is disturbing how some of the mass media are always in a rush to stereotype a whole continent of people.
What is the point in stressing that he was Asian?
Do some of these journalists know anything about geography?
There are many countries in Asia.
Asia is not a country but a continent.
And what is the point in stressing his race?
No matter his race, he lived and committed the crime in America and not in his native country. May be his problem was his life in America!
Most Journalists are always in the habit of chasing after and focusing upon the fruits of the problems of society instead of the root causes.
Most Journalists seem to always be part of the problem instead of the solution: twisting stories, stoking and fanning racial emotions in order to generate publicity and make money peddling stories of human tragedies.
Ikey Benney
- Posted by Ikey Benney, On Virginia Tech Shooting By Cho Seung HuiThe media seems to be content with stereotyping sinpers as mentally disturbed and as the identified patient.
I did not see quality media coverage, more like the regular white-wash.
The media did not show students jumping out of windows to avoid the sniper Cho.
I do not believe any of it anyway because students and poets are generally not violent, and asians commit somewhere less than 0.3% of crimes in America.
I have come to the conclusion that there is no real point in reading or watching the news very often because there really is no in-depth coverage, and/or the media violates peoples privacy and similar.
- Posted by HCI do not sympathise with the medias but I do agree with the struggles that the editor is facing with regards to what to report and when the reports become too much.
- Posted by IonBuck