Bloggers challenge old media after Virginia shootings

01/05/2006

The tragic events at Virginia Tech in April will, according to one US writer, “go down as the first Web 2.0 national nightmare”. User-generated content played a huge part in the reporting of the shootings, with many journalists sourcing quotes and images from student blogs and sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Livejournal and Flickr. CNN ran footage of the scene on campus with shots ringing out, filmed on a student’s mobile camera phone. But the bloggers were the real reporters of the story, with online critics turning up the heat on the mainstream media, berating NBC and other broadcasters for showing the tapes and photos made by the killer, Cho Seung-Hui. Some online critics could not contain their revulsion; others claim that this played exactly into the hands of the gunman, who ‘helpfully’ provided the media with digital pictures and audio clips. However, not everyone believes the decision was unethical; seasoned blogger Dave Winer of Scripting.com argued that had NBC not shown the tapes, they would have found their way onto the internet anyway.