Posted on April 19, 2007
We have all seen, heard or read the news. In fact, the news has been inescapable the past few days. Television channels, Web sites, newspapers and radio shows have needlessly belabored the tragedy that Virginia Tech experienced earlier this week.
Massacre. Rampage. Shooting spree. These words have infected the headlines, drawing all eyes to Blacksburg. The attack was the most lethal campus shooting in history, and the media has coined the incident the “college Columbine.”
As a newspaper, we are familiar with toeing the fine line between tasteful and disrespectful photos and stories. The tragic events that unfolded on Monday have caused us to take a step back and examine whether or not the news coverage over the past few days has been appropriate or just insensitive and overkill.
News outlets seem to prey on tragedy. TV screens, front pages and radio have chosen to focus on the emotional and dramatic events concerning the Hokie community. Camera crews and news reporters have prowled around the campus to provide in-depth coverage and a slew of special reports for the audiences, showing the true effervescence of the media in order to tug the heartstrings of those touched by this tragedy. With increased media technology, news media can provide the public with video and sound clips that can develop the narratives of students, faculty, and family members into a monumental chronicle.
This accusation is particularly applicable to the 24-hour cable channels that have broadcasted nothing else for the past three days. CNN has hosted a deluge of interviews and lengthy reports, highlighting the hardship that Tech is experiencing.
Sources quoted in major media outlets such as the Washington Post still seem inconclusive of many crucial pieces of the puzzle. Questions still linger regarding the motives of the individual who took so many lives. The media almost instantly painted Cho Seung-Hui, the shooter, as a macabre aficionado with a dark personality and hostile tendencies. Other details of the developing story were rushed to print, disregarding possible bias and the need to thoroughly check facts before publishing. This rushed dispatch of facts degrades the credibility of the news the media presents to the public.
It was appalling to watch a live interview on CNN when a reporter asked a Tech student how he felt when he was notified that his friend and roommate had been killed. Obviously, he was devastated that he lost his close companion, but asking him to relay such personable and raw emotion to millions of Americans is simply callous. The intrusive investigations do not stop here. A reporter even attempted to enter the deceased shooter’s room in search of evidence that would affirm the media’s accusations, but thankfully a hall monitor had the decency to shoo the reporter away.
JMU should be commended for its timely response to the incident and for the overwhelming support it has exhibited to Virginia Tech and our own community. Over the past two days, JMU has offered a campus-wide moment of silence, a candle-light vigil and an invitation to counseling opportunities.
As President Rose said, “it is impossible for us to fully appreciate the pain and grief of the families, the students, the faculty and the staff who have so personally experienced the anguish and remorse associated with [Monday].”
If JMU is incapable of comprehending the grief of those affected by the Tech tragedy, how thoroughly can distant reporters sympathize with the personal anguish of the victims’ family and friends?
It’s doubtful the news media is aware of just how their all-encompassing coverage is not allowing the wounds of those who have lost loved ones to heal. What is even more alarming the fact that it cashes in on viewer’s vulnerability. One can only wonder if this is the exclusive incentive for such extensive coverage of events like this.
While we should praise the news for relaying the facts of the incident to an otherwise unknowing nation, the way the media unmercifully pervades the lives and plays with the emotions of those influenced by the happenings at Tech is inexcusable. The extent to which the media covers events, specifically events that are still so sensitive, trivializes the tragedy and turn such disasters into marketing tools to engage the greatest number of viewers.
The news media should have more respect to those it has continuously and carelessly showcased this week, and take two steps back from broadcasting the despondency that afflicts the Virginia Tech community.
