Instant I-Reporters excel in coverage of the horrific rampage
By Gayl Murphy
i-Report cell phone video was first glimpse
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today), 4/17/07 — CNN’s spot-on coverage of the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech ushered in a new breed of on-the-scene reporting on a major news broadcast. It was a real time marriage of would-be citizen journalists blended and formatted to “the Big Boys TV news” with the cabler in the driver’s seat.
This is the first time CNN’s much publicized foray into TV 2.0, I-Reports, stepped to the forefront of this kind of major breaking story. Since the cable network promoted the program three months ago, the clips have been pretty much limited to local weather phenomenon. CNN no doubt hoped to get some exclusive video as do all TV stations that have post-Rodney King tip lines. Yet even they may not have expected student cell phones would be the backbone of their early coverage of one of the biggest stories of the year. Is this the arrival of the convergence of news and information we’ve been hearing about?
Like a proud Papa in the background, but taking a firm lead, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer empowered his on-the scene newbies to do what any first-rate correspondent would do in the face of such fluid and tragic breaking news story…tell it using the basics; Who, What, Where, When and How. And these cub reporters, these Virginia Tech Jimmy Olsen’s were suddenly redefining major broadcast news and bringing it to 2.0, community-created content.
So how did they do? Students like Jamal Albarghouti (who shot the now-famous cell phone video footage of the shootings and later reported), Erin Sheehan and Madison Van Dunye were standouts. They were competent and professional. There were cool, calm and knew the lingo. They stayed with the story and stayed on the air. They didn’t freak out. They were engaging and they reported the news, plain and simple. They did what any aspiring college news I-Reporter will now do in the face of breaking news story — they pulled out their cells phones, pressed play, record and send.
They certainly seemed more collected than the Blacksburg, VA police chief, who had confused reporters with conflicting accounts of who was a “person of interest” and who was the shooter, plus a refusal to link two sets of killings that left 33 dead including the killer, reportedly a 23-year-old South Korean national attending Virginia Tech.
Media pros even took note of the Instant Reporters and picked favorites. “Jamal was the best one; professional, but exuberated to be on national TV,” said NBC courtroom artist/reporter Steve Werblun. “I thought they were schooled in some form of broadcasting, or at least avid TV watchers who knew the routine. This not only allows CNN to get pictures everywhere, but its great opportunity for those trying for a career there.”
Big broadcasting kudos to CNN for not backing away (not that they ever would) because they didn’t immediately have a staffer or stringer live on-the-scene when the story broke. Later in the day, CNN staff reporters and anchors arrived and the I-Reporters were downgraded to witnesses, but it didn’t matter who held the mike, these students were the stars of the coverage from a situation that couldn’t have been more dreadful.
On a related CNN note, one of the most chilling eyewitness accounts was from a student marking the methodical, robotic actions of the killer as he moved through hallways and into rooms, rapidly shooting everyone he ran across. The video game-like action was not lost on Dr. Phil (McGraw), one of the big-gun commentators CNN rolled out later in the evening.
“Common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen,” Dr. Phil said. “You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high.”