Virginia Tech Student Government Asks The Media To Please Leave
April 22nd, 2007 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Anyone can overstay their welcome — particularly a swarming news media during a major, history-making, terrible event. And so it goes at Virginia Tech too:
You’ve seen the news coverage from Blacksburg, complete with prominent network anchors reporting from the scene.And now, the student government at Virginia Tech is asking for all of that to end. It’s calling on hundreds of reporters to leave campus by Monday morning, when students are supposed to return to classes.
A spokeswoman for the student government says the campus appreciates the reporting on the story, but that students are ready to move forward.
Liz Hart says “The best way to know how to do that is get the campus back to normal.”
She says students need to be able to get back to class and back into a “normal routine as much as possible” without any reminders of what a “difficult road” it will be.
In her words … “We already know it.
And, indeed, there is a point in any news story where it ebbs and flows. In media editor terms, this one is still ongoing. But to those who have suffered a trauma from which they realistically will never really recover — life goes on but memories remain — a news media on campus trying to find the new twist or someone who hasn’t been asked yet “how do you feel?” is not a welcome one.
The subsidiary story will now be how many news organizations agree to this request. Most likely: not many and not everyone. A news story often has a life of its own and it’s seldom dictated by whether the subjects, players or bystanders important to the story want it to end or not. It has more to do with what other news organizations are doing.
Does it look like the New York Times is still reporting on the campus? Is the Washington Post doing interviews with campus officials or students? Is CNN or Fox News doing pieces from the scene? If so, others will want to be there, too…to find their new twist on the story. Stories, particularly tragedies, take on lives of their own.
The AP notes that students and educators want to try to salvage the rest of the year:
When classes resume Monday, the university will give students three choices: They can continue their studies through the end of the semester next week, take a grade based on what they have done so far, or withdraw from a course without penalty….….Students interviewed by The Associated Press on campus in recent days say they and everyone they know intends to return.
“This is the best school around,” said Steven Mason, a senior from Appomattox. “As far I’m concerned, they did everything they could.”
Said Cheryl Gambardella, Brittany Gambardella’s mother, as she helped her daughter unload the car: “We love this school. You always have concerns, but not because it’s Virginia Tech. It could happen in a shopping mall.”
So there is a feeling that life — even one traumatized by a recent shocking event — needs to go on.
Which is harder to accomplish if someone is there with a notebook or microphone asking you “how do you feel”…
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Virginia Tech, Mass Murder, Crime, Media, Media Criticism, Education. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
