Blogs debate role of student’s video in VT massacre
Steve Safran April 23rd, 2007
I like it whenever I come upon contrarian points of view. And newassignment.net has a doozy. Steve Fox writes about Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti’s cellphone video of the shooting at Virginia Tech. Here are some of his thoughts:
As everyone steps up to applaud the “citizen journalism” that occurred yesterday, with kudos upon kudos give to the cellphone video made infamous by CNN… Consider this: the video had no inherent news value and told no story. It did have sounds of bullets being fired and screams. Those were bullets that killed, maimed and injured students and faculty members. This wasn’t a video game. Is such video responsible journalism? Are these the types of Citizen Journalists that people want to see? Are we doomed to create “citizen journalists” to play the I-patsies for cable television?
A poster in Fox’s piece also points us to Paul McCleary’s thoughts from CJRDaily called “What Happens When an I-Reporter Gets Hurt?”:
Arguably the most stunning thing about Albarghouti’s footage is not what he was filming — it took repeated viewings to figure out exactly what it was that he captured — but the fact that he seemed to run toward the gunshots. We applaud — scratch that — we expect any cameraman worth his salt to move toward the action, but a grad student with no experience in these situations?
I will respectfully disagree with Fox’s take on this. There is plenty of news value in a firsthand, eyewitness account of a major news story. Just because Albarghouti wasn’t in the classroom doesn’t mean what he captured wasn’t news. He had sound and he had pictures of police moving in. We show pointless exteriors of buildings hours after a crime has taken place there. This was news video. McCleary’s point is more provocative. There will come a time when someone rushes to he scene of a tragedy to capture it on video and gets hurt. Does that mean we stop asking people to send in pictures? No. It means we - as you already hear - tell people to use common sense and not take risks. Mind you - If he were my kid, I’d scream at him. (And take away his cellphone…)
7 Comments Add your own
1. invitedmedia | April 23rd, 2007 at 10:21 am
oh, i dunno. considering all the outlets had no problem running the late mr. cho’s citizen journalism effort, do you think this might be one of those classic STFU moments?
2. Alyssa | April 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I’m a little suprised that there was only 1 citizen journalist who captured anything that transipred that morning. Or that only 1 thought to send it to a media outlet.
3. Charles | April 24th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
As a potential journalism student who once thought about photojournalism, I would definately want to take pictures of whatever was happening. That is my first instinct, safety second. So, I can completely sympathize with capturing cellphone video, instead of running away. It’s kind of stupid, yeah, but…
4. Jade | April 30th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Please stop calling citizens who accidently on purpose captured some images (or sounds) of a major news story a ‘citizen journalist’. I’m sorry but if everyone who records something that’s happening in your neighborhood is called a journalist we should really redefine our profession. And start handing out free press cards so everyone can go to premieres, sports matches etc. for free!
5. Brandy (Blacksburg, VA) | May 9th, 2007 at 1:58 am
I think it is a shame that people would actual comment on something they know nothing about… our community suffered a tremendous loss, along with the rest of our nation. We would like for this to be about the people that had their lives taken away at such a young age, and the instructors that had been there for 25-30 years. People want to remember the good memories, not simple things as stated above.
6. tolehermomi | October 30th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
You don’t really need or want that lifestyle, it might hurt y’all slowly more…….Just tell him you
don’t wanna repeat something your not too proud of z7uas.
7. kamila | May 19th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
no idea
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