Monday, April 23, 2007
Under regular circumstances, it would be another bad amateur video with shaky frames and tinny sound. But that changes when the loud, repetitive pops start and dark uniformed figures begin dashing back and fourth. Then it becomes powerful.
It's Virginia Tech.
In all the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings last week, Tech student Jamal Albarghouti's camera phone video provided some of the more haunting images.
On a day when information was scarce and little made sense, Albarghouti and other students demonstrated the power of new media and exactly who reports the news and how.
It was just a week ago that 32 people inexplicably lost their lives during what started as just another Monday on the Blacksburg campus.
We now know that Cho Seung-Hui, a student studying English, was responsible for what cable news networks have described as a "massacre" or "rampage" that resulted in the deaths of students and teachers.
But as newspapers, networks and cable news scrambled to find out what happened, students like Albarghouti were capturing the tragedy as it happened through camera phone videos, blog updates and text messages. In documenting what unfolded, they simply used the tools they've become accustomed to in daily life. But to some -- including traditional media -- it comes as a surprise.
Students who were locked down in dorms posted info on blogs and other Web sites about what they knew was going on, while others used sites like Facebook and MySpace to let loved ones know they were OK.
The student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, kept a running blog of dispatches from the initial reports of a gunman on campus to the rising tally of victims.
Even after the newspaper's Web server crashed from all the attention, the paper continued to post stories on the site of its parent company, College Media.
Angelique Carson, executive editor of the University of Southern Maine Free Press, said student newspapers aggressively go after the truth by nature.
"Student journalism in a way is the most pure journalism," she said. "We're trying to understand the world in our own way."
At the same time, as more people become comfortable with new media, the idea of a professional journalist is changing, she said.
If someone witnesses an accident or attack, their first move may no longer be to call a TV station or newspaper. It could be to report it themselves on a blog or personal Web site, she said.
Carson said there's no question that her generation is comfortable using new technology to show what's going on in the world.
"It's not a specialized form any more, where it's just trained professionals that are able to capture the news," she said. "It's turned into something where we're all journalists whether you have training or not."
But Carson's colleague at USM's Free Press, Joel Theriault, sees things a little differently. Just because someone can snap photos or post stories on a Web site does not always make that person a reporter.
"I wouldn't call these people journalists," said Theriault, the Free Press' news editor. "I think it is a trade you have to train for."
But new media does have a role to play in how news reaches people, he said.
If news organizations can adapt to ways of breaking news faster, everyone benefits, he said.
Ken Brief, the faculty adviser to the Free Press, said getting information to readers will always be the bottom line.
USM has its own share of safety concerns this year, thanks to several bomb threats.
Brief said the students at the Free Press needed little prodding to realize the importance of that story to the university community.
Brief said they pushed to break news in the weekly paper as well as the Web site.
But in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, new media continues to play a large role.
On the Virginia Tech MySpace page and Facebook group, people from around the world are posting messages of support as well as creating YouTube video tributes.
Andrew Bossie, USM's student body president, said it's only natural to reach out online to those who are grieving, because the Internet is a regular part of young people's lives.
"This just strikes really close to home for college students," he said.
Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 See his blog at:
www.pressherald.comIn the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, new media continues to play a large role.
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Good call on this article. I noted this in my section of the paper this week, citing some of the videos that i've seen on youtube. one of the videos was taken with a camera phone and illustrated the police mounting up to the school and in the background, the viewer can hear rapid-fire.
This is an interesting debate--what classifies as a journalist? I agree with Joel that journalism is a profession, and that the concept of the distribution of news is institutional. It is for this reason that I welcome any sort of innovation that forces this institution to change its tendencies/ways. Newspapers are stale. Even network news websites are stale. I hope that this sort of external pressure will change that to some degree.
Journalism is a profession, but there are very few people who are exciting me. Kids with video phones are exciting me--and if their influence is what it will ultimately take to get the insitution to change, I am in full support of their influence on a potential evolutionary wave.
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