When a real news event happens
Our university became the focus of national attention on Monday when campus police shot a student with a Taser during a public forum with U.S. Senator John Kerry.
One story I heard after the event: An experienced reporter was assigned to cover the forum but begged off because it was “just a speech.” An inexperienced reporter went in her place. When pandemonium broke loose, that reporter had to call an editor to ask what to do! I don’t fault the green reporter for that — but I’m amused to think how the other reporter must be kicking herself now!
Our student daily has been covering the story since the event took place. Yesterday there was a protest march on campus. The student photographer at the forum Monday got some great shots (at least two were picked up by the AP; way to go, Andrew Stanfill!) — but he did not have video. The student shot with the Taser was released from jail yesterday. Thanks to a new CMS at the newspaper, all the stories are getting loads of comments online.
I wasn’t going to comment on this incident, because it’s not closely related to online journalism — but then I saw this blog post from a current student of mine, and I was reminded that there are always opportunities for learning how to be a better journalist.
Update (Sept. 20): Pauline Millard of Editor & Publisher says our student daily, the Alligator, is doing a great job with this coverage: “Overall, I say the staff of the Independent Florida Alligator gets an A for their efforts.”
I think this also supports the argument that reporters should have video cameras. You never know what’s going to happen, and sometimes it’s something people just want to see — even if it’s not award-winning quality.
September 19, 2007 at 11:33 amTrue. The quality of the youtube video of the outburst was just about the worst quality you could possibly get … Yet I was enraptured watching it the whole time.
September 19, 2007 at 10:07 pmHere is a link to the newspaper and the comments mentioned. Took me awhile to find.
http://www.alligator.org/
September 20, 2007 at 6:43 amThanks, Yian. Each of the three articles I linked has its own (different) comments. That is, the comments are attached to each article.
September 20, 2007 at 8:44 amAngela: The NBC video is better quality.
http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250
September 20, 2007 at 8:50 amWhat craziness!
September 20, 2007 at 11:58 pm