April 16th proved to be a very interesting day in the life of college students everywhere. For those of you who may not understand what I'm referring to (or have been without news or TV for more than a week), I'm speaking to the massacre that took place at Virginia Tech. As a quick reminder, 33 students were slain at the hands of one Korean student, Seung-Hui Cho. According to forensics and other police reports, Cho went berserk and unleashed over 170 rounds upon students before putting himself out of his own misery.
Granted that this is simply a rough outline of what occurred, it's not really what I came to say. My concern is more towards the role the media has played in covering this event. Is it just me, or does it appear to be displayed as more of a viewing spectacle than a tragic event? Now I, like most others, like to know what's going on and where, but to parade this around for more than a week and have every news station, news net, paper, etc. showing this over and over and over and over can be a bit much. Let me clarify; it's not so much that they were giving updates, but the constant repeating statements about the number killed, how, who-dunit, etc. to me was uncalled for - especially when they began showing the photos from the video that Cho sent to the TV Station. Personally, they could have just showed Cho's school portrait and let it go at that. Instead, they showed all that he sent: photos of him holding his gun at the camera, poses of him with both guns drawn, etc. The video that he made was played over and over again and available to any and all who cared to look. Should we be concerned that a message is being sent out to future delinquents who think the world is out to get them and this is the way to deal? Why give so much attention to the villain...what about those that were affected, both directly and indirectly? Yes, I know this coverage came (eventually), but glorifying (in a manner of speaking) someone for such a heinous crime tends to be giving more credit than I think the media knows.
But I guess they just want the rating...
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Well i guess for some people who don't get to see TV much, it informs them. They are paid to report the news, but i agree, a lot of other things got brushed under the rug because of the over-reporting of the shootings. Like Sanjayah getting the boot off AI! I had no idea!!!
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