In tragedy, digital media came into its own
By Mackenzie Carpenter
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Published 4/18/07
Excerpt:
"We're seeing a benchmark moment for digital media, no doubt," said Bob Steele, Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute, a media think tank in Florida.
While noting that the mainstream news media -- television, radio and newspapers -- "has covered this story with intensity and on all cylinders," he said widely available technology and the campus's isolation meant that digital accounts provided critical information during the first hours of the crisis.
"If this story had played out in Boston, New York, Los Angeles or Pittsburgh, news organizations would have been on top of the story almost immediately," he added. "The fact Blacksburg is at least a bit away from larger cities and metropolitan areas made this a story in many ways told through eyewitnesses rather than from journalists."
Media throng sets up shop in Blacksburg
By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke Times
Published 4/18/07
Excerpt:
Used well, the national spotlight "can reveal strength and courage and dignity in ways that counterbalance the terror and the horror" of a tragedy like Tech's, said Bob Steele, an ethics specialist with the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank and training center in Florida. It can help victims and families find comfort.
Fox News general assignment reporter Molly Henneberg was one of the first national correspondents on the scene in Blacksburg. In her experience covering the Hurricane Katrina disaster and war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Henneberg said the press corps "can help people across the country feel this and grieve."
It can also be cathartic for traumatized families to talk about their loved ones and see them memorialized on national TV and in the national press, she said.
But it can also overwhelm the community, Steele said. Especially vulnerable are local reporters who must compete with the nimble, well-connected, well-staffed national media. And victims, families and officials can find themselves besieged by constant phone calls, e-mails and door knocks.
Phone camera reports blur line
By Eric Deggans
St. Petersburg Times
Published 4/18/07
Excerpt:
"We might use what people videotape or observe ... but then we verify it," said Bob Steele, an instructor on journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the St. Petersburg Times. "I'm waiting for the hoax in this story; someone who says, 'I shot this on my cell phone,' and later we find out the video was altered."
