As many of you know, there was a bombing at the Boston Marathon yesterday. This is a developing news story. And as you may have noticed, some of the details have changed as more information has emerged.
If you have family or loved ones affected by the bombing, I offer my empathy and support. Even if you didn't, it still affects all of us. Yesterday proved to be a jarring day.
While the bombing doesn't necessarily lend itself to media law, I would like to point out some aspects that relate more closely to some of the things that we've discussed.
Consider how you first learned about the explosions/bombing. We were taking a break in my Monday media law class when Michael, one of my students, said, "This is off topic, but..." We both spent part of the break catching up on Twitter to find out what had just happened in Boston.
It was interesting to see just how quickly photos, videos and other information was shared via social media. It's also interesting to me that police and news outlets were careful in reporting that they have a "person of interest." This means that they have identified someone who police believe has more information about the bombing, but it is not an accusation of committing a crime. No doubt concerns about the presumption of innocence and liability for libel are some of the reasons for the careful language.
Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by some of the initial reaction. Soon after reports of the bombing became public, one political commenter later said he was joking when he said all Muslims are "evil" and should be rounded up and killed. Twitter shut down a fraudulent Twitter handle called @_BostonMarathon that claimed to raise money for bombing victims in exchange for retweets (it was re-tweeted more than 50,000 times). That same news story also reveals other fraudulent photos being circulated, along with an accurate report that the Westboro Baptist Church announced that they play to protest outside the funerals of bombing victims.
It's hard to make sense of some of this, but I suggest that all of you, as mass communication majors, consider what's being reported and how this story develops.
It's also interesting to think about the photos and videos you saw on various outlets. How graphic were they? Where you warned by online media outlets about what you were about to see?
You probably saw the university announcement for a moment of silence at 1:45 p.m. today to think about the victims and families of those affected by the bombing. I'm grateful for my Tuesday-Thursday media law class for their participation in this solemn moment.
If you'd like to share some observations, thoughts or comments about the bombing in Boston, please do so in the comments.
51 comments:
I found out from Facebook after the exam yesterday. And all it said was "for all my loved ones in boston, be safe." I didn't even need to go far into the internet to find three front page stories on Yahoo about the bombings. I felt sad and disgusted by this atrocity and it shocked me as I was watching the coverage on ESPN, and then on CNN, when you heard the accounts of the people. Former football player and ex Patriot Tedy Bruschi was talking about how he was trying to explain what was going on to his sons. Thinking about that still makes me cringe. I feel that this is playing out like the Sandy Hook event. News outlets are repeating information, conspiracies are being created, speculation about certain things are growing and we still don't why. We don't know who to blame. I want to see how this plays out and see if this actually was a terror attack. What if it was a gas line explosion? Until then all we can do is just pray and appreciate that we are all still here.
I first heard about it from different status posts from different news outlets I subscribe to on Facebook. I've only seen one truly graphic image. It was the full photo of the man in the wheelchair with three people getting him to safety. I had seen the picture before, but only cropped versions of it. Then I feel I fully grasped the horror of it all.
I have conflicting thoughts about the way the media treats images from these types of events. On one hand, I do believe there is a sensationalist factor to publishing graphic images that should be avoided. But I also believe that sometimes there is a need to not bury the most unsettling of images because the public should not be shielded from what is very real, despite how ugly it may be.
I'm reminded of Jackie Kennedy when JFK was assassinated in Dallas. I've heard that when LBJ was inaugurated on a plane, Mrs. Kennedy refused to remove her blood-stained jacket saying she wanted people to see what had been done to her husband.
Similarly, I think it is the media's responsibility to show people the brutality of terrorism.
My first thoughts and prayers definitely go out to the victims and the families of this tragedy. And because I work in law enforcement I sympathize with the officers, medics, and 911/dispatch center, etc. I've been with Austin Police for 9.5 years as a call taker, police dispatcher and supervisor - I know this has to be a nightmare for the Boston Police Dept.
I didn't learn about the bombing until after our exam. One of the first things I read on Yahoo was that VP Biden was on a telephone call concerning the gun debate when he learned about the bombing. Here we are trying to figure out how to stop people from shooting up schools and movie theaters and now this? How do you stop someone from making a bomb with what seems like items/ingredients from a home improvement store? (I have also seen a few pictures and I thought they were a little bloody when you think about what we saw during 9/11.)
Any my final thought is on how quickly the panic spread as result of all the communication technology out there. Our police department in Austin quickly went into tactical alert status - our helicopter is checking our homeland defense areas regularly. We've also sent out press releases while updating our social media pages with information.
I found out about the bombings right before our exam when we were suppose to be studying. It took over what was on my mind at the time and I felt the need to constantly read every update on twitter to try to make sense of it all.
There were already numerous videos, pictures, tweets, and vines posted of the attacks within the hour. Since then even more graphic videos and pictures have been circulating online. The FBI have requested for people to send in any media to them to aid in the investigation. The only other time I've seen a mass request for cell phone video data was the Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver when their police department requested videos to be sent to them anonymously to help prosecute rioters.
We have been discussing liberty quite a bit this semester and I am interested in what liberties Americans will have to stiffen (similar to the aftermath of 9/11) due to this attack.
My aunt is from Oregon and she was actually there to to run the marathon. Thankfully she was finished before the attack. These senseless acts seem to be increasing at an alarming rate with no real end in site. I feel like it's impossible to stop these crimes, especially when the culprit works alone.
The main concern that I have with this attack is that there is still no information regarding what exactly happened and who is involved. Apparently there was surveillance of someone holding a backpack minutes before the detonation but I've heard that was a dead lead.
In terms of Mass Communication, the amount of conspiracy theories I saw almost outweighed actual coverage of the events. People are always trying to twist events to make their points, and that section of the entire discussion disgusts me. Other than that, I am praying for all those affected and hope nothing like this happens again, although it seems only inevitable that something similar or even worse will.
I was notified of what had happened by Michael who was sitting next to me in class. I saw many pictures and videos on the news while I was at work and was able to catch up on what had occurred. One of the news stations had interviewed a person who had filmed the aftermath of the explosion. He had said he was trying to avoid filming to up-close to the victims that had been injured because he knew that everyone would probably be watching this video and he didn’t want to offend or disturb them. I really appreciate how he took into consideration not only the victims but the viewers and family members as well.
I think it is so sad and crazy! I think this world is turning so evil, I can't believe it! I think the moment of silence was really cool for our school to do.
What would the Westboro Baptist Church protest against?
I had just gotten home from class on Monday when I pulled up Twitter and noticed a large number of Boston/Boston Marathon trending topics. I always get very nervous when I see something like that.
In the midst of all the terrible footage and interviews that were coming out, it was nice to see people using Google and Twitter to find their loved ones amongst the chaos. The downside to that though was that even going near Twitter exposed you to an outpouring of conspiracy theories and outright racism. Sad times for sure.
I want to speak about this without sounding offensive: If this was a terrorist attack I am angry, but if this was a make-shift bomb created by amateur AMERICANS, I AM BEYOND ANGRY. Being a part of TX State and ACC, I remember all the notifications about bomb threats sent through the emergency systems. Why do we have emergency systems in place? Because terrorist attacks can happen anywhere, anytime, and by ANYONE. My exact words on Facebook in response to the October 18 bomb threat sent through TX State's emergency alert system were as follows:
Marie Broussard
October 18, 2012 at 9:48am ·
I can't even begin to explain how pathetic the people who use bomb threats in schools are. I get an Emergency alert from Texas State about once a week. I would love to tell those UNGRATEFUL, PITIFUL excuses for Americans to take their anger and their cheesy bombs (probably from the Internet or made in science class) and shove it up where the sun don't shine!!!!
Why did I say that? Because we live in a culture where people are always trying to get noticed. I am disappointed and disgusted. I think America needs to solve the threat of terrorism and selfish, ungrateful Americans IN AMERICA FIRST, before we accuse other nations. I realize this could be a foreign terrorist attack, and if it is, like I said, it still disgusts me...but if this was an American (I've heard they found remains of a pressure cooker on a nearby rooftop in Boston) I am even more disgusted.
After hearing about tragic incidents such as this, the Sandy Hook shooting, and other acts of hate, many tend to lose faith in humanity and focus on all the negativity happening in the world. I myself became very sad and thought: "geez, it's not safe to be out in public anywhere these days." But a friend of mine reminded me that we are actually living in "one of the most peaceful times in the history of mankind" and I found that to be very comforting. When horrible events happen, so many people come together to help a stranger. Just some thoughts that lifted my spirits.
I first heard about the bombing from my mom. She called me up and told me there had just been a bombing at that Boston Marathon. Sadly, I didn't think much of it at first. I feel like I hear about a different shooting or bombing every week. The stabbing that occurred recently was at the community college that I attended before coming to Texas State, which hit a little too close to home. The bombing in Boston is a tragedy and I wish there weren't sick people out there. Unfortunately, there will always be people like this. And I try and look at it like this: there are billions of people in the world and there will inevitably be hostile, sick and mentally unstable people NO MATTER WHAT. But those are handfuls of people while there and so many other people who are sane and strive to be good people and would never think of committing such awful crimes. I try to look at all the people who ran and helped the injured and put their life at risk to help someone they didn't even know. As much as it pains me to see such violence, tragedy like this gives me more faith in people than not. I hope that we can all grow as a country and a world and move forward.
Marcelo Mayen TTH 12:30
I was pretty upset after I saw what happened in Boston. It's a sick feeling knowing that a tragedy like this could happen anywhere at any given moment. There were some pretty graphic photos on the news with people being wheel chaired away with blown-off body parts. It just makes me angry knowing that there are scumbags out there willing to drastically change the lives of innocent people. Three people are dead, and some will never walk again because of some scumbag. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy.
During my Web Design class on Monday, I casually heard a classmate said, "Have you heard about the explosion at the Boston Marathon?" I didn't even know Boston had a marathon. I searched online and tried reading a news article real quick before class ended. All I found out was that the Boston Marathon was a big deal with other countries involved. I read a few push notifications on my phone, but I just hadn't grasped it yet. After getting home, I turned on the television and wow...I just sat there on the chair. I was frozen in place. The street image of the explosion will always be a permanent picture in my mind. It looked like a mini-war zone. I couldn't believe how fast the finish line was cleared out by all the police and volunteers. Who knew Boston had that many police officers?!
I had been insanely stressed with school all day. Now school problems were pushed aside to focus on three people wheeling a man to get medical attention. I felt overwhelmed. I still feel overwhelmed. Part of me was curious to see more and the other half didn't want to see any more painful images. Part of me was trying to figure out the mystery- who would commit this act? Is it an American who just wanted attention? Is it a group from around the world? Who knows? All I knew was that I wanted to give my family and friends a big hug.
The media did an outstanding job collecting pictures and video footage. From a media perspective, I knew fingers were flying on keyboards to update stories and share information. Even pictures had a few broken links because web designers were uploading so quickly. When the Boston Police Department gave a statement to the reporters, the spokesperson looked calm, scared, stressed, and at the same time didn't have many answers for the reporters. Overall, I feel lucky that we have social media and news outlets to help feel more connected.
My thoughts and prayers go to Boston and to anyone else who was deeply affected. I am glad we had a minute of silence during our Media Law class. The visiting cricket even honored the moment.
Katesia Fleetwood
T/Th 12:30p.m.
I was totally stunned by the bombing. There I was with my first world worries of passing the test and some fool or fools have set off bombs. It crazy to think that I was taking a test while this tragedy was taking place. Get in my car and turn on ESPN to hear them talking about the bombs at the Boston Marathon. I really thought for a moment that it wasn't real. I caught my snap and realized this shit is real. I just got mad because there is no sense to it at all. As my daughter said to me the next day, "How can a person live with themselves after causing pain or killing another person?" Sad thing is I really don't have an answer. Broke my heart to hear an 8 year-old boy had been killed. To cut off a life so early.
I honestly wish that when the madman is found that we make him an example. I know people say we can be brutes like other countries but to me terrorism is a whole new level. You must show the world our country will not, on any level, tolerate this and there will be extreme consequences.
I first found out about the
Boston bombings on twitter when I saw someone randomly tweet "My heart is with Boston." I immediately took to Google to find out what happened and there were an influx of shocking news stories. I was devastated and heart broken about what happened.I still do not understand what could have caused these young men to have such a hate in their hearts.I have to say I am so proud of the Boston Police, EMS,hospitals and American citizens at the Boston Marathon for their bravery and for not thinking twice to run to the aid of others in need.
I was actually in the KXAN newsroom as the bombing happened (I'm an intern there). We immediately called local running organizations to try to get in contact with someone at the race. KXAN was VERY careful with their words regarding a suspect--they did not even toy with a possible reason behind the explosion until NBC gave word. The producers were a little shocked at some of the raw footage that was on a live shot, only because it was very graphic and news outlets are careful to show those things. (however, every news outlet is different--it depends on the risks they want to take with the FCC). As for those who were complaining in class about the same footage being repeated over and over, think about this: The nation was wondering what was going on and even news outlets were not getting various amounts of information/footage to show. Reporters were just as clueless as we were, and news stations were waiting on new footage to show. So, in the mean time, the only option was to replay the footage we had.
Jenny Sessions
I was at my internship and my mom texted me immediately after it happened (she saw it on the news). I started to Google articles about it. All of the articles had been posted like five to 10 minutes before. The articles were all really anxious and did not have many details. I went back to check the articles about an hour or two later, it looked like a lot of the existing articles had been updated. It's really frightening how so many people commit violent acts, but I definitely find some comfort knowing that I can almost immediately become aware of what is going on in the United States.
I have cousins that live in Boston, but thankfully they were not harmed in the explosion. So I found out about the explosions through them. It made me feel that at any moment on any day something can immediately impact my life. It saddens me to see some of the tweets referring to a specific ethnicity. Though what is even more crazy is how many reports and tweets were on the web within minutes of the explosion. It really shows how fast people can get their news these days, and it is important for us as a society to know what is going on.
William Wood TTH 12:30
Although the tragedy in Boston did not directly affect any of my loved ones the fact that something so terrible could occur like that made me really feel a sense of despair when it comes to the goodness of people, but then I read this quote and it made me realize that no matter what, there is good out there to outweigh the bad. Here is the quote by Patton Oswalt
"Boston. F***ing horrible.
I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."
But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.
But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.
But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will." ~ Patton Oswalt
When senseless acts of hatred and evil like this happen it is challenging not to feel some sort of resentment towards mankind. I think it is important to remember that the handful of people who do these awful things is far outnumbered by the number of people who do kind/thoughtful/helpful things around the world.
I also think it is really frustrating to see how social media and mass media spin these events. It has been a week since this happened and I have already seen conspiracy theories popping up. I have a hard time understanding why people can't just accept that terrible things happen and sometimes that is just how it is, there doesn't always have to be some conspiracy behind it. This same thing happened with the sandy hook shooting. I was appalled to see some people trying to accuse the father of one of the victims of being behind the whole scandal. I think social media and mass media are extremely powerful tools and it is really sad to see some people abuse them. Within a couple hours of the boston bombing, my twitter, Facebook, and instagram had exploded with images supposedly from the event, which later were found to be fake. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that. The news is obviously our biggest source of information in events such as these. In flipping between the different news channels, I saw some consistency among the main facts being reported... which makes me wonder where people get the false information they post on social media outlets. I think it is sad that people just make up lies so they can be the first to report something.
In times of terror, when our country should be coming together, I think it is sad that people instead try to use these events for personal gain.
I was home when I learned about the bombings. I saw several friends on Facebook post statuses looking desperately for my friend who runs marathons. He answered quickly saying he did not run the Boston marathon this year thankfully. So I started to do research as to what had happened at the marathon, I have a weird tolerance for gore and actually searched for the images they were not showing on the news channels, the images were disturbing and worse than what I could possibly have imagined. The media was careful to not point the finger at anyone terrorist group and the individuals who were commenting repetitively said they could not point to one specific organization. They were cautious in their language. Over the few days following the bombings conspiracies started to emerge using the same pictures I saw earlier and blaming the media for lying. It's difficult to distinguish truth from all of the information that can be gathered from any given medium. Like the false twitter handle, false picture and information circulate faster due to our ever growing social media fascination.
I first heard of the Boston bombing on Facebook by one of my friends writing "My heart goes out to all in Boston". I then proceeded to go the NYTimes website and reading about the bombing at the Boston marathon. I'm a little disappointed honestly in how quickly this has become a matter of politics, but I do understand that as journalists or reporters it is their responsibility to explore all possible outlets when gathering information. We live in a world where technology is so incredible fast that we take for granted how quickly media outlets were covering the story. It is hard to distinguish the truth among the differing new articles, especially now where conspiracy theories are clouding the inter web.
Laura Villalobos, Honors
Will Oliason
M 2-5
I think it is cool that media can respond fast enough to let people know that something happened, but I wish there was a more effective way. It seems that the faster the coverage, the more made up it becomes, and the more people are either hurt or unnecessarily riled up.
I was sitting down at a restaurant glancing every once and awhile at the TV’s screen until the time that the bombings started. Then I, and everyone else in the restaurant, was glued to the screen. It was shocked to see such graphic images being shown on national television. It was difficult for me to understand the reasoning behind the intrusive reporting techniques that were implemented. This could just be me, but I felt terrible for the victims and how they were being broadcasted on television. Yes, I understand that it was necessary to show some images of injured individuals to get the point across on how devastating this incident was. But I didn’t like how some images of the same people were being shown over and over again. It just seemed degrading to not give those individuals space to grieve about what had happened to them. Hopefully in the future there will be more ethical ways for reporting devastations like this without taking away from the story itself.
Every day that has gone by since the Boston Marathon bombings has still left me in disbelief. My stepdad is an advocate marathon runner and he had a few buddies that were running the Boston Marathon that day. He was quite frantic when he got home, and I asked him what was he so ancy about. I hadn't heard of the bombing until then.
Another thing that bothered me was all of the news reportings and twitter feeds that had the wrong information or jumped to conclusions about the facts. I had heard something about it being Muslim radicalists and I thought--"here goes 9/11 agian"--considering how badly Muslims and anyone else who looked like a "terrorist" were actually terrorized themnselves. I didn't want all the horrible stereotyping going on again. I stopped listening to the media for a few days because it frustrated me so much to keep hearing different stories, and the horrible pictures and videos did not help either.
What is so sad about this is that bombings like the Boston Marathon bombings happen every day in places like Syria and I feel that we take for granted what we have and at the same time this should awaken people to see the world around us.
Your post reminds me of a presentation I did for my Research Methods (3360)class. I presented a study concerning the relationship between journalists and official sources, and how information can be distorted during times of emergency. The study was interesting because it explained accuracy, timeliness, and panic as dimensions of emergency communication, and how official sources and journalists can have different views on each other, the information, and therefore the messages disseminated could be inaccurate. It explained how journalists have to pry information out of official sources, and the mistrust the two parties can have for each other. The article can be found here:
http://www.prsa.org/intelligence/prjournal/documents/2012swindellhertog.pdf
I'm starting to see this relationship more in the news after reading this article, and it is interesting how people in the media business handle emergencies in our current times. It seems the media are starting to realize that accuracy is incredibly crucial to an organization's credibility when a natural disaster, catastrophe, or terrorist act occurs.
It is also interesting to see how information is progressed. Two weeks after the Boston Marathon, one can see how the media moves from the incident to dissecting the suspect. For instance, some news outlets were discussing the suspect, and how he had an Instagram.
This event was so tragic it breaks my heart, but what breaks my heart even more is that reporters rushed to get the news out there and some wasn't even true! How can i trust the news when reporters are more concerned with quantity and not quality.
I was actually thinking about this class during the event, as horrible as that sounds. Because the night of when police were looking for the suspects, many people on Twitter were claiming that the bomb suspect was the Brown University student that went missing a month earlier. People were saying really bad things about the guy, calling him a terrorist and whatnot. Turns out, he was NOT the bomb suspect. Hundreds of people on Twitter were saying bad things about an innocent guy. What makes this worse is that a week later, the missing Brown University student was found dead in a creek. This all must have been hard on his family. If he wasn't dead, I would wonder if he would consider suing people on Twitter for the widely false accusations. Even some news companies bought into the idea.
I hadn't even heard of the bombings until the later that evening. I had been really busy that day and hadn't checked my twitter feed and hadn't watched T.V. yet. I finally check my twitter around 5 p.m. and it seemed like every tweet was about the incident. I then turned on the T.V. where every news station was covering it. I watched ESPN and they had multiple segments on their hour long show explaining what happened. One thing I found interesting/frustrating was that I would hear numerous "facts" from news stations and then come to find out that they weren't true. News stations were trying to be the first with the news, but ended up skewing facts and some of what they said was completely false.
I found out watching the news and it was very reminiscent of 9/11 for me. Videos and facts flying all around and not knowing who or what to believe.
I was quite impressed at how quickly local, state and federal agencies came together and discovered who the assholes were.
Although, it was quite concerning to see military vehicles in a U.S. city...not since New Orleans (even thought they were Guard)...I hope these were Guard as well and not Regular.
I found out about it right after the incident in my monday class. The girl sitting next to me saw it on twitter and shared news with the whole class.
It was funny how media rushed to cover the story and got so many facts wrong. I screen shotted a picture I saw on instagram of a witness, Donna, to the bombings and the news reporter used the picture of the Sandy Hook principal, Dawn.
I think the media did what they were supposed to do. So many questions were flowing through all types of media outlets, people wanted answers and that's typical in society today. We have that "we want it now" mentality. I clearly remember first hearing about the boston bombings through a text message and then going onto my twitter and noticing how much had spread within the few minutes that had passed from the last time I had checked it.
My twitter was filled with sources and stories while my IG was covered with "pray for boston" pictures.
That day was hard to get a grip on only because I kept asking myself the "how could this happen" question.
Aside from most of the obvious observations about this tragedy, the thing that I oddly will remember the most is the so-called "greed" of media outlets. This is the tragedy that I really paid attention to, and will always remember (not because of the events that unfolded) but because of how the media outlets covered the event. Some networks reported false information days early before actual events in hopes to be the FIRST with the story. The networks care more about their ratings than they do reporting "REAL" news. It is a shame. Even in times of tragedy, MONEY is still the first thing on everyone's mind.
The frenzy that took place surrounding this event was completely insane. I have never heard so many different stories on what actually happened or been given so much misinformation on such a big event. Even news stations did not have accurate information but in their rush to be first to report, instead elected to broadcast facts that were not facts at all. The event itself is devastating and I pray for the families of the victims regularly. I just hope that in the future we have learned that being first is not always what is most important.
I mentioned this in class, but I am grateful for photographers that were there for the race stepping up and taking pictures of what probably wasn't the most appealing subject. People with missing limbs and extremely bloody victims aren't exactly what they signed up to photograph. Yes, the pictures posted online were graphic, but honestly, the public today is so visual. Without pictures, people are bored. If not a single person had gotten a picture of anything related to the Boston bombing, where would we be? More people would be believing it was all a government set up and that it didn't really happen.
Some people squirm at the sight of a missing limb or two, but I would ask those people what kind of movies they are watching and allowing their kids to watch. Somehow we've lost the sensitivity to the fact that what happens in movies and on TV can actually happen in real life, and instead we throw a fit over online news sources posting pictures of disastrous injuries because it's too real.
Some sources posted nothing but pictures as they were released, and they separated them according to level of graphic nature. I appreciated this, even though I looked at all of them. It's nice to have a warning!
When the bombings happened I was at an advanced storytelling workshop for another one of my classes. I initially found out about the bombings through twitter within the hour of when they occurred. It was crazy how fast things were posted.
There were some pretty gory pictures of the scene and videos that had been taken and posted within an hour of when the bombing happened.
I later saw an interview with a young man who lived across the street from where the bombing happened and was live tweeting it, while hiding for his safety.
It is crazy and incredible how fast news can travel now, and although mistakes and false facts are bound to happen, I think the speed in which we are all connected can be a good thing.
I also noticed a lot of media outlets on the internet warning its users to make sure what they're tweeting was a reliable source, which I haven't actually seen happen in the past as widespread as it did during the bombings (and with the explosion in west.)
I was watching another program when a breaking news alert came on the television and that's how i found out about the bombings. I think it was really creative how the police and people of Boston used social media to catch the suspects.
This event was so tragic and crazy, the media was so on top of it and I don't necessarily think that was a bad thing. I watched the news that whole week and noticed that the "Live" shots had a five second delay in case something went haywire--which I never knew and found really interesting.
Jonathan Hoffman Media Law, Monday 2-4:50
One thing that I love about social media is the exact same thing that I hate about it: News is propagated instantaneously but on that note, FALSE information is also spread like wildfire. And people feel compelled to exploit tragedies for likes/retweets/comments/followers. It's absolutely repulsive how people behave when something horrific like this happens. It's wonderful to want to be in the know and keep up to date, and wanting to share news with your friends is even better. But it's another thing entirely to deliberately sensationalize a tragic event for your own personal gain.
Another thing that I couldn't help but notice in the media is the inherent tendency to jump the gun and blame the Islamic extremists for each and every act of terrorism. And when a suspect of something is white (or an "idealized minority" e.g. an Asian person) the media focuses on their accomplishments and goes into depth about their mental illness. That same treatment doesn't seem to be given for suspects or even victims who are minorities. That's just an observation that I've made over the past couple of years while watching/reading major news sources.
Vanessa R.
T/TH 12:30-1:50pm
I knew within seconds about the Boston bombing because of twitter and the certain news accounts I follow that are not the typical ones like AP, CNN, etc. From the start till now they have been the most accurate through them all and were first to announce before tv or even the big name news accounts. It is great to see there is a future in online journalism with the right resources and facts to back them up. As saddening as the day was the future of news was shown. YOU as an individual have to do your own research and put your trust in the right place and take it with a grain of salt.
I heard about the bombings from my mom over the phone. I have a good friend from high school who lives in Boston so I immediately contacted her to make sure she and her husband were okay. They're fine and thankfully were nowhere near where the bombings occurred.
One thing that I heard on CNN that I find very interesting is that the suspect got his citizenship on September 11th of last year. That made my skin crawl a little when I heard that part..
AllisonLangeITVClass-Monday
I found out about the Boston marathon via facebook. It is pretty much where I first get a heads up about anything that happens. I watched various news outlets and I did take notice to there very careful language. They did not say anything to incriminating until it was confirmed. I was watching two different news outlets at work when they were hunting down Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and both were pretty much saying that same thing in the same ways. They seemed to be tip toeing around what was happening.
Veronica Garcia Tues Thurs 1230-150
I first found out from an ABC news alert on my iphone. About 20 minutes later it was all over social media and the news. What upset me is that the reporter on the news said the only suspect they had was a student that was here on a Visa. I thought that was very stereotypical and shouldn't have been said until they were certain. Now that everything is unfolding it's surprising to see how many people were actually involved. Another issue I had was that an organization on campus posted something unrelated to the bombings on their social media but happened to use the words "blow up your social media" When brought to their attention that those probably weren't the right words to use on a day like that they didn't see an issue with it. If it were a company they would be under so much hate and bad publicity so it was frustrating to me.
I found out about the bombing at the Boston marathon the same as many others; social media. I was checking my twitter feed and every other tweet had something about Boston. "Pray for Boston." "#BostonBombing," and many other phrases symbolizing the sympathy for everyone in the area.
Later that day, one of my friends was talking about what a huge impact this bombing had on her. She is originally from Boston and has many family and friends still up there. She said her dad had planned on participating in the Boston marathon, but thankfully didn't get registered in time. I couldn't imagine how I would feel if something like that happened so close to my family.
It got me thinking about the shooting in the Aurora movie theatre ordeal. My cousin and his wife tried purchasing tickets to go see the midnight premiere of Batman. When they called to reserve the tickets, they were already sold out.
A couple days after the bombing had occured, I was on Facebook and saw a picture from the Boston marathon. The picture was of the crowd and had three distinct rings drawn around different objects. One ring was around the little boy that was killed, another ring was around the bomber in the background, and the third ring was around the backpack that the bomber left on the ground next to the child. The awful things that have been happening in our society today just kill me. I don't understand what goes on in their minds to actually go through with a plan such as this.
Kenzi Morton
TTh 12:30
I found about Boston as I have found out about so many other national news headlines, through social media. News can spread like wildfires through social media.
As sad as the events were that happened in Boston, it was really awesome to see how the things I am learning about in my classes this semester (e-commerce and law) were used to identify and find the suspects so quick. After learning about how closely watched we can be through the internet, it was nice to see these powers used for something good.
Social media was also used to help identify the suspects as soon as their pictures were available. We proved as a nation, when we work together, we can do anything.
Kerri Driver
TTH 12:30
The day the bombing took place, I was in a workshop at school most of the day and didn't really have access to any of my usual electronic devices. When it finished and I arrived home later in the afternoon, I checked my Facebook, and needless to say, was pretty shocked that something like this passed over my head most of the day. Of course, not much information was known at the time. The major news stations were just replaying the bombing footage while talking over it most of the time. Eventually, I also saw the body of one of the dead brother's on a message board I frequently browse. I don't remember seeing any warnings for most of this. It seemed like a given since no real information was known at the time that this is what the general public wanted to see until more information was discovered. As the days went on, it was chilling to see how Boston went on lock down and such. Definitely another low point in U.S. history, and the story will only continue to develop as we make sense of this.
Christopher Salinas
ITV Class - Monday
I was very saddened to find out about the Boston Marathon bombings. Horrible and can't imagine having loved ones involved. I was at home and my husband texted, "Turn the news on."
I did not think initially that this was a terrorism act. It seemed too small and why the Boston Marathon of all events? While I do feel that some of the photos and videos were too graphic and hard to look at, I am usually a believer of seeing it how it is. I personally want to see what is really happening, it gives me a real picture, a true idea of what its really like. But I do understand how others may not want to see it all.
My husband felt that it was ridiculous how much the news outlets replayed the bombing video. I realize that its hard for the reporters to get all of the information correct and be the first to do so. But it always feels like a dirty reporter move who cares more about getting the story than being accurate. I think its more important as a news station to be accurate.
Alissa Catalano
Media Law 2013
Gilbert Martinez
T/TH 12:30-1:50
I found out about the Boston bombings on instagram because pictures were circulating and of course twitter was going crazy. The images I saw had captions with them that said "pray for" this person, and explained what had happened in the picture. They were very graphic pictures with blood, dead bodies, etc. While it was very sad and I can only imagine how loved ones felt seeing these images, it shows that media especially social media plays an important role in bringing the story home for viewers. Social media has given reporters a chance to get stories out as soon as they happen.
The first I heard about the Boston bombings was on ESPN. I found that to be interesting, due to it being a primary sports channel. I realized it was tied into the marathon aspect but was still a bit shocking. For something like this to happen in our society, the media should have handled it better. There were claims of arrests even days before they found and actually arrested someone. Another aspect that can be detrimental in situations like these is social media. Like you said in the blog a twitter account was shut down, it amazed me to see how many people would just post anything they've heard or seen without any digging for information or with a touch of sympathy for the people affected.
Its times like these when America, especially the media outlets to keep themselves "in line" so to say. Be respectful of the families and friends that were affected, tell the truth.
Yes this was a story that took time to develop to get the facts straight after. Its frustrating to be led to believe one thing, and then to the other. Its hard to trust social media sometimes.... My heart goes out to all the victims and family members. I am just shocked that college students such as you and I would even be capable to do such an act? The students who were apart of this act were at college for a reason,? To learn and better themselves as an investment to their future and not to live the rest of their lives in prison or to die. Its just frustrating how cruel people can be, and how easily you can be fooled. I was just astonished when I read the background information of the two and the "normal teen/young adult" life they lived.
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