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beanmomma_gw

tragedy progression -too fast, too much?

beanmomma
16 years ago

I'm wondering if it's just me or has media response to such a horrible tragedy as the VT shootings become weirdly accelerated?

These horrible events barely seemed to have occurred and the next day there were memorial services/talk of healing/eulogies? I don't even think all the victims have been publicly identified have they? I'm really not trying to be morbid but what ever happened to a shock and grieving period...asking questions? Why is there this seeming rush to 'wrap it up'?

Plus I think the media has pre-packaged their response to horrors like this too much. I hate how they now give these things titles/music/evocative photo bumpers immediately ! Feels too much like a tv show.

Comments (14)

  • suzanne_il
    16 years ago

    It's too much, it's entirely too much. Having worked for a newspaper for years I can tell you that your bad day is their good day and it will be milked for all it's worth.

    They claim that their job is to report the news and inform the public, but it goes way past that.

    Here's something you should read, written by a TV news camera guy - a lenslinger - who is dreading that he will probably be called to travel up there to photog the continuing "news event" at Virginia Tech.

    Here is a link that might be useful: the Lenslinger - Dreading the Trip

  • lilod
    16 years ago

    NBC and ABC both had "special reports" last night, I turned them off - they are using"standard keywords" it seems, and, most sickening, the commercials cut right into the most tragic and saddest segments - commercials selling fast food, cars and all the other usual consumerist stuff.
    It appears to me that such reports should forgo the commercials out of respect for the tragedy, perhaps acknowledge the sponsors at the end of the program.

  • lindac
    16 years ago

    Don't be too quick to condemn what offends you and others may need.
    I need to know it all...I am consumed with wanting to know who he was, who the victims were, why, who knew him in 6th grade, what does his mother think. I am watching and reading everything I can...Immersing myself in the news, trying to make sense of it...
    Then I can move on.
    That's the way I deal with such things...I process immediatly and then,,,that's it.
    You should have seen me after the Kennedy assassination,.,, It's a good thing I had a TV in my kitchen or my children would have gone hungry. But I missed the Ruby shooting, because by then I thought it was over...I thought....
    I was glued to the TV, computer and papers for about 5 days after 9/11...etc etc. When my mother died, I spent a week going through all her papers, all my old pictures, letters she sent me as a college student etc....then I was on to recover.
    I was about at that point today when the news about the package to NBC became known.
    And Lilo, if you want to see TV reporting tragedys without commercials you need to watch public TV, which by the way, is where I first heard of the shootings.
    No I, I would not want to be behind the camera, but I NEED to see what he sees.
    I won't ever forget...but soon I won't need to be so immersed in the tragedy.
    Linda C

  • mwoods
    16 years ago

    I can't imagine anyone wanting,much less being able to move on within a day or two of this tragedy. How can one make any sense of this by the barrage of info pouring out and countless blogging ad nauseum before the bodies are barely cold. I
    agree with you completely Lynn and Suzanne. Yes,the facts are important and as nice as instant gratification can be at times,I can wait.

  • macbirch
    16 years ago

    I didn't mind the memorial service, I thought those people may feel the need to be together and support each other in that way, but I don't know if the media should have had access. I assumed the offical public memorial service would be held later.

    I do feel the need to know more. But it takes a while for the real facts to emerge. We heard he was a student, he was a Chinese student, he wasn't a student at all, etc. They really shouldn't have lengthy special reports based on rumour and speculation. What I really need to know, why, will never be answered to my satisfaction.

    Beanmomma, I so agree with you about the titles/music etc.

  • oakleif
    16 years ago

    I'm also sickened by all the news and i just flip over once in awhile to see if there is anything new. As far as the mentally ill young man that did it. It's enough to know a English teacher reported a couple years ago he needed help and was ignored. That a young woman reported him stalking her and reported him to police. That he was treated for psychological problems and not followed up. A psychiatrist said he fell through the net. Hog wash!! We don't have any nets in place to catch these people because we have no real psychiatric care in this country unless you are a politician or a movie star. Look at all the pedaphiles that get a slap on the hand untill a child or more are killed. The same goes for domestic abuse and any other abuser. This was a tragedy. If you want to help,ask your representitive "Why are these people running loose when they could have been stopped before they got so bad and if they can't tell beforehand why can't they tell. There are symptoms?"

    Yes i hurt for all these people at VT AND I'M TIRED OF USELESS NEWS. Sorry.

    please don't let me stop this thread
    vickie

  • andie_rathbone
    16 years ago

    What makes me mad is the people who, after the fact, come on air with all the answers: This wouldn't happen if students could all carry guns (WTF????), College campuses need to be "secured" (does this mean that they should resemble airport terminals?); screenings for buying guns should have shown his involuntary commitment to a mental institution; gun laws should be changed, etc. etc.

    Suzanne is right about a horrible event being fodder for news agencies, and now they've got way too may 24-hour blocks of air time to fill up. Before this happened they were mesmerized with who was the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby, and after this there will be something else for them to drive into the ground with their constant so-called coverage. For right now I'm listening to the BBC & that's about it.

  • calliope
    16 years ago

    Would have been just as "informed" by a one minute newscast from a real reporter like Walter Kronkite. Our local paper ran a front page article about a couple here who have "ties" to VT.........IOW they used to go there. So? What has that got to do with the tragedy? In my mind, the media circuses around these events lay the groundwork for repeat performances for really mentally ill people who see how they can get their fifteen minutes of fame.

  • rob333 (zone 7b)
    16 years ago

    Sus, Did you know he idolized the perpetrators of the Columbine attack? Groundwork lain. And obviously, if the media hadn't shown it, things might be different at VA Tech. Too much ever.

    excerpt-"...railed against wealth and debauchery, portrayed himself as a defender of the weak, and voiced admiration for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in messages laced with rage showed by NBC News on Wednesday..."

    Here is a link that might be useful: Colubmine reference

  • lindac
    16 years ago

    good heavens! Are you saying we should keep things like this "secret" lest some sick person become inspired to copy the scenario?
    Nope! I don't think so!
    By learning all what everyone knew and when they knew it, possibly...just a slim possibility, but it's enough for me, someone spotting someone who exhibits the behavior that Cho did will see that the person is monitored and never gets the chance to buy a gun...or another lethal weapon.
    I am sorry for the students and alumnae of VT who are suffering ( BTW the recent Governor of Iowa, Chet Culver is a graduate of VT and has been very vocal in support of the mourners) but while they are living it and dealing with their grief, for the rest of the country and world, it's sad, sad news and we want to know how we might prevent something like this happening in our own back yard.
    I think the overwhelming question in my mind is..."How can you KNOW?"
    I suspect the answer is, you can't ever know for sure, but there are warning signs.
    Linda C

  • andie_rathbone
    16 years ago

    Well plenty of people seemed to know he was a whack job & it didn't help anyone at VT the other day. Right now if a college kid is crazy there seems to be nothing anyone can do if he or she doesn't want to be helped because of privacy laws. Even that individual's parents can't be notified. So what does showing hid videoed rantings over and over and over again prove? Nothing, IMO, except to promote sensationalism.

  • mwoods
    16 years ago

    NBC apologized today for having shown it so soon after the tragedy and said they should have waited. The only reason they showed it is so they could have been the first to show it. I guess there are enough ghouls out there ready and eager to suck up this stuff as soon as they can. For them to apologize means it involved $$$$ translated...lots of complaints to sponsors about the insensivity of the timing. I get so sick of the media shoving mikes into the faces of people seconds after a tragedy with the excuse that it's informative and the public's right to know and I get just as sick of people who glom onto all the sensationalism,fail to see it for what it really is and say it's their right to know. One feeds the other and the rest of us are the losers.

  • meldy_nva
    16 years ago

    I think a lot of it comes down to why we "need to know" whatever. To advise of the tragedy is newsworthy only in its exceptionalism, and that could have been summed up in a 1-sentence soundbite repeated ad infinitum, ad vomitum. And that's pretty much what happened.

    More info can be categorized: who did what to whom, when and where. And let's be honest - "Why" is invariably speculative, becoming informative only well after the event -- consider the news reports about Hitler at 1-year intervals. "Why" has no place in the immediacy, and is of use only to those can study it after the event. The general public does not have the training, skills, knowledge or interest to actually make use of any determination of "why".

    Unless we are in the vicinity and have the needed skills to assist the authorities, we certainly don't "need" to know tragic or horrific details on a minute-by-minute basis. And if we do need those details, news teams are unlikely to provide am acceptable means of communication of the required information.

    The rest of us fall into the categories of being involved and/or being an observer. Involvment means you are personally connected to one of the victims -- and I don't mean living in the same home state, I mean you actually know the person. People who are involved would have been grateful for specific information regarding the victims, both in learning who was injured or killed; or confirming that the known person was safe. In this category, public media could have been useful, but I found the publicized information was scanty and late in being delivered.

    Non-involved observers do NOT have a "need" to know. The media can pander to their morbid curiosity and demands, but catering to inquisitive ghouls is sensationalism and neither admirable or necessary.

  • mwoods
    16 years ago

    You said that a lot better than I did. My anger gets in the way sometimes.

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