textualdeviance (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
textualdeviance) wrote2007-04-16 11:07 pm
textualdeviance) wrote2007-04-16 11:07 pm
Entry tags:
Reporting on the reporters
So, in catching up with the shootings of today, I noticed some interesting things, from my perspective as a student journalist:
CNN interviewed the school paper's EIC. She was nervous, and a bit giggly (due to that and the wind) but showed considerable composure. She and her staff were also clearly on top of things, too. They started looking into the first shooting almost immediately after it happened, and were trying to track down why there was no campus closure after that.
And then there's this.
As awful as this event is, it amazes me that the students and student journalists at this school have done a better job of covering it than the mainstream media have, by not only being more on top of it, but by integrating content from multiple sources into a cohesive, continually updated story that still manages to be journalistic despite much of its amateur origins. The paper's site has become basically a blog about the event, with news as it comes in.
Also, it's interesting to see some of the shitty behavior by reporters on the LJ post from the guy whose girlfriend was in one of the classrooms. WTF does the Boston Fucking Herald need to be pestering this guy about this? National? Sure. Local? Of course. Campus paper? Absolutely. And EVERY OTHER REQUEST ought to go through one of those three channels.
This is why so many people hate the media. They descend like packs in situations like this instead of simply letting the people closest to the event--and therefore the most appropriate to handle the story--get the story, and then syndicate that. There is no reason whatsoever that the Boston Herald shouldn't be using what the Collegiate Times gathered, instead of trying to get their own story by pestering the exact same sources. They're not going to get a scoop. They're not going to get a good story. They're not going to do anything except piss people off.
If I'm EVER put in a situation in which an editor asks me to go sticking a microphone in the face of someone who's just experienced a tragedy when we aren't the core media in the area or subject in question, I will, with no hesitation, walk right off that job. If I worked for the Everett Herald and they told me to go track down some guy in Idaho whose son was mauled by a rabid moose? Fuck that. If the guy was a former Everett resident and Boeing employee? Different story. That's something that matters to our local audience, and therefore we have a responsibility to deliver that angle of the story (although we should cover it far less thoroughly than Idaho media.)
On behalf of all real journalists, I apologize to the people who have been affected by the shittastic behavior of the vultures today, and I applaud the people from the Collegiate Times who have showed such amazing professionalism under extraordinary circumstances.
CNN interviewed the school paper's EIC. She was nervous, and a bit giggly (due to that and the wind) but showed considerable composure. She and her staff were also clearly on top of things, too. They started looking into the first shooting almost immediately after it happened, and were trying to track down why there was no campus closure after that.
And then there's this.
As awful as this event is, it amazes me that the students and student journalists at this school have done a better job of covering it than the mainstream media have, by not only being more on top of it, but by integrating content from multiple sources into a cohesive, continually updated story that still manages to be journalistic despite much of its amateur origins. The paper's site has become basically a blog about the event, with news as it comes in.
Also, it's interesting to see some of the shitty behavior by reporters on the LJ post from the guy whose girlfriend was in one of the classrooms. WTF does the Boston Fucking Herald need to be pestering this guy about this? National? Sure. Local? Of course. Campus paper? Absolutely. And EVERY OTHER REQUEST ought to go through one of those three channels.
This is why so many people hate the media. They descend like packs in situations like this instead of simply letting the people closest to the event--and therefore the most appropriate to handle the story--get the story, and then syndicate that. There is no reason whatsoever that the Boston Herald shouldn't be using what the Collegiate Times gathered, instead of trying to get their own story by pestering the exact same sources. They're not going to get a scoop. They're not going to get a good story. They're not going to do anything except piss people off.
If I'm EVER put in a situation in which an editor asks me to go sticking a microphone in the face of someone who's just experienced a tragedy when we aren't the core media in the area or subject in question, I will, with no hesitation, walk right off that job. If I worked for the Everett Herald and they told me to go track down some guy in Idaho whose son was mauled by a rabid moose? Fuck that. If the guy was a former Everett resident and Boeing employee? Different story. That's something that matters to our local audience, and therefore we have a responsibility to deliver that angle of the story (although we should cover it far less thoroughly than Idaho media.)
On behalf of all real journalists, I apologize to the people who have been affected by the shittastic behavior of the vultures today, and I applaud the people from the Collegiate Times who have showed such amazing professionalism under extraordinary circumstances.
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My thesis is: "Fuck mainstream media, they don't know how to cover crisis."
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However, if anyone I know is ever mauled by a rabid moose, you will be the FIRST person I call!!
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There are wonderful journalists, but there are always a few who seem to be completely and utterly lacking in decency or social skills.
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