Virginia Tech Shooting: 2007

On April 16th, 2007 one of the deadliest school shooting the United States was faced with occurred at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. This massacre was led by the gunman Seung Hui Cho, an English major attending the university, who was later killed by self inflicted gunshot wounds. All the trauma began at 7:15 am when Cho entered a dormitory, shooting a freshman girl and a male residence assistant, and quickly vacated the premises. Police arrived to the scene promptly, but by 9:40 am Cho was entering another building on campus. He had locked himself in the building where he began rapidly shooting people from room to room. Ten minutes after the second attack began, Cho decided to take his own life. In the end, seventeen people were wounded, twenty-seven students were killed, and five faculty members died.

What set this violent act apart from others was the way the media had handled the situation. This event was one of the first major shootings that combined traditional media and new-media technologies to relay the information to the public. The news did not first break on television but began spreading across the worldwide-web. The first information that was released to the public was at 12:37 pm via the university’s website. This notice stated an emergency crisis relating to shots fired on campus, in which everyone should remain inside and away from harm. After the shooting alert was posted by the university various twitter accounts, including the Daily Press and the Collegiate, began informing the public. These twitter accounts encountered skyrocketing following rates concluding the needed role of social media during emergency crises. This form of media was used to distribute condolences, opinions, updates, and important notices on the wellbeing of the public’s safety, on both Twitter and Facebook. Even after the violence stopped and the safety of the community was at rest, people still began looking toward social media as a great source of information in times of crisis.

Citizen journalism, when the public plays an active role in the process of releasing news information on various events to the community, emerged thanks to new technologies such as social media, directly relating to Twitter and Facebook. The public is now able to gather, report, analyze, and distribute information on events, such as the Virginia Tech massacre. However, the release of some information caused the world to see this event in a different light. Donya Curie stated in the article Role of Social Media in Crisis Communication, “A major challenge of Social Media, however, is a lack of confidentiality and a danger of non-verified information flashing around the globe at lightning speed. A common barrier to adopting Social Media in communications strategies can be the fear that too much information too soon will create panic.” The ways in which information can now be released raised concerned questions pertaining to what exactly will soon be available for the world to see, given no restriction in citizen journalism. While public opinion is breaking free, the separation of false information from supportable evidence based on opinion therefore, needs to be regulated by gatekeepers and professional journalists.

On April 18th, 2007 a package was delivered to the NBC News containing photos and videos from that day, which was mailed by Cho from Virginia between the two shootings that took place. The video Cho produced described his true feelings of the fellow students he was surrounded by, through various rants he had undergone about his decision. It was clear that Cho was a victim of mental-health problems, however the main problem was deciding what information and footage should be released to the public. Some believed that the complete “multimedia manifesto” should have been released to the public, but this is simply incomprehensible. The severity of the footage would cause alarm to many people, as well as, showing little to no sympathy for the families that were undergoing significant loses at that time. Emotions of others must be considered before releasing such powerful footage on this event. The news media network ended up only releasing greatly edited portions of Cho’s delivered message. This was done to explain the intentions of such a troubled man in the hopes of establishing sympathy for those at loss, as well as, those under concern. Not only did this event open the door to a new form of journalism, but it shaped how media needs to formulate and edited information being released to the community.

Communication during crises is pivotal for the well-being of the public. Social media can now be used by various people and organizations to assure confidence, even during tragic times. The means to quickly and effectively release news information, via social media, has changed the news world indefinitely. This media outlet allows the public to remain in contact with family and friends during difficult times when it may be hard to reach them. Not only has this form of communication revolutionize the way people communicate, but it is now expected to be accessible for all large organizations to obtain information for various updates, information, and ultimately during emergencies. Social media now plays a pivotal role in presenting important information to the public thanks to the events that took place at Virginia Tech in 2007.