The Drama of School Violence and Media Competition
In Chapter 3 we discussed the ways that competition and deadlines contribute to in-complete and inaccurate reporting. But competition also influences coverage, particularly competition to keep up with the elite media. Consequently, in many cases news managers focus their attention on manipulating the elite media. If a news manager gains access to an elite medium, coverage in other media follows.
In some instances, access to elite medium works to the advantage of both the medium and the newsworthy person. For example, in the 2000 presidential campaign, as rumors spread that the time he had spent as a Tag Heuer Replica prisoner of war in North Vietnam had shaken his mental stability, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain released his medical records, which confirmed that he had withstood the stress of that time well. He also made himself available for network interviews. In the process, the McCain campaign transformed a story about potential instability into an opportunity to re-mind voters of his heroism. Coverage by one medium influences to coverage in other media. This is particularly true of the elite media, and news managers make special efforts to influence elite media coverage.
On Tuesday afternoon, April 20, 1999, images of children being rushed from their suburban school appeared first on cable and then on broadcast news. The story was filled with suspense. Initial news reports indicated that gunfire had been heard. There were hostages, said some reports.
Then it came reports of dead students and a dead teacher. Finally the news emerged of bombs in the schools, bodies that might have been booby-trapped. As the story unfolded, viewers learned that two white teenagers had killed twelve classmates and a teacher. Analyst Andrew Tyndall found that the evening network newscasts gave the story of the killings at Littleton 144 minutes of air play during the four days following the event.
Why so much coverage? First, the news was dramatic, violent, and filled with involving visuals including those of children leaving the school, SWAT teams, and victims.
The story was also novel, a deviation from expectations and from routine. Whereas violence is expected in urban schools, this massacre–which produced more deaths than any previous school-related shooting–had happened in a peaceful suburban school. Although one might have expected the killers to be malcontents at the bottom of their class, these were kids from good homes who brought home good report cards.
The story focused on individuals, particularly on the two who did the killing, and on their home life, their parents, and their friends. “This was every parent’s nightmare,” observed CNN’s Jeff Greenfield. Coverage also focused on the death of a young woman who had been asked by her would-be killer whether she believed in God. She answered that she did, and he pulled the trigger.
The story also fit into the pattern of past stories of school violence, including an incident in March 1998 when an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old killed four children and a teacher, as well as an incident in 1997 that resulted in three deaths. Paul Friedman, executive producer of ABC News, explained that the story rose “all the questions we all have about raising children and getting along with adolescents and understanding adolescents, as parents and authority figures trying to do the right thing.”
We discussed the ways that competition and deadlines contribute to in-complete and inaccurate reporting. But competition also influences Omega Replica Watches coverage, particularly competition to keep up with the elite media. Consequently, in many cases news managers focus their attention on manipulating the elite media. If a news manager gains access to an elite medium, coverage in other media follows.
In some instances, access to elite medium works to the advantage of both the medium and the newsworthy person. For example, in the 2000 presidential campaign, as rumors spread that the time he had spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam had shaken his mental stability, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain released his medical records, which confirmed that he had withstood the stress of that time well. He also made himself available for network interviews. In the process, the McCain campaign transformed a story about potential instability into an opportunity to re-mind voters of his heroism. Coverage by one medium influences to coverage in other media. This is particularly true of the elite media, and news managers make special efforts to influence elite media coverage.
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