In trying to write today’s column about the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the natural inclination would have been to get reactions from students here about fears of something of that magnitude happening in Maine.
But as the week wore on, it became apparent the story wasn’t just what happened, but how it unfolded.
"New Media" is a term that gets used, but really it covers just about anything you could use to report and publish a news these days. That means blogs, photo sharing sites, social networking sites and generally any use of personal technology that could be difficult for older people to use without a manual.
The people at Virginia Tech were not just reporting on the story, they were part of it.
As the story quickly transformed from reports of gunshots to confirmed deaths, The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech’s student newspaper, provided bit-by-bit accounts in blog postings.
At the same time, students on campus were trying to make sense of things, posting what they knew from their vantage points. Student Bryce Carter was one of several to use his personal blog to pass along information as it happened, offering a first-person look at the uncertainty and fear that came in the first few hours.
Here’s Jamal Albarghouti’s cellphone video, which first made its way to CNN and then other media outlets:
One of the other points raised in today’s column is the sense of connection on college campuses based on the helpless feeling that such a tragedy could happen anywhere.
Colleges and universities around the country are responding in their own way, and last Friday was Maroon and Orange Effect day. The tradition comes from students and faculty wearing the Virginia Tech colors prior to big football, basketball or other games. Last Friday, students around the country showed solidarity by donning Tech colors.
Sorry, dude a bit of a let-down. You want to talk about this tragedy and the MEDIA?? How about how the media used his video and manifesto to boost their ratings, meanwhile glorifying this killer. When Dan Rather ran a true story about our president they used planted documents to create outrage. When this video of a killer, glorifying his sorry existence, when this was shown on the air, where is the outrage?
WHO MAKES THESE DECISIONS AND WHY???
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE MAN, OR ARE YOU NOT ALLOWED TO GO THERE?
The new media is fast becoming no media. This is because the traditional media is becoming irrelevant. Or it is the middle-man which is slowly being cut out. There are three main purposes for media – 1) To report the news as it happened. 2) To interpret, summarize, and organize that news so it is understandable in a reasonable amount of time. 3) To make money for the network providing it.
#1 is fading quickly. In the old paradigm, reporters rush to places of news and ask questions of those who experienced whatever took place. Now the people themselves report the news directly to the internet.
#2 is partially being replaced by bloggers who have earned respect from readers as good interpreters of the news.
#3 is fading because the internet is largely free.
In the new paradigm, the good news is that we choke off the money motivated news sources. We have NPR and NPT to become the source of professional interpretation. The difficult news (not bad, but not easy) is that we readers of news have to take more responsibility for interpretation. This requires a level head, a broader canvassing of sources, a questioning of authenticity, an honoring of rights, a mature perspective avoiding sensationalized muckraking. In effect, we have to exhibit the same characteristics that good media sources do.
Gren, I beg to differ. There is no choking off of money from big media. TV is almighty in this country. There is no power in the new media. If the new media had any power would we be in Iraq right now? The so-called new media just becomes an echo chamber for TV most of the time.
Justin is a former newspaper intern and has the scar tissue to prove
it. Justin has been a staff writer for the Portland Press Herald/Maine
Sunday Telegram since 2003, and in 2004 began writing a weekly column in the
Monday Magazine.
If he had to pick a label, the column would fall under "youth culture,"
covering everything from high school dance etiquette, dealing with college
debt, the resurgence of Roller Derby and Portland's one-of-a-kind music
scene. This of course has not stopped him from answering letters to Santa
Claus or writing about his experience riding shotgun in a drift car.
Justin is an export from the Midwest. He is a graduate of the University of
Missouri and is originally from Minnesota. He enjoys bacon, cheap beer,
redheads, Burt Reynolds jokes and wondering what the soundtrack to his life
would sound like.
When he grows up he wants to be an international art thief. Or Captain
America.
Until then he'll be bringing you dispatches about "the young people" and
what they do.
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