I am a journalism student at a large school of communications, and issues like this one are highly debated in our classrooms. We are constantly given situations in class that a news director or journalist might run into and asked to figure them out ethically. I understand that NBC receiving this footage was a ratings jackpot and it would be hard to keep it contained…But I have come to the conclusion that NBC betrayed fundamental journalistic principles.

Was it wrong for NBC to air Cho Seung Hui’s Video?

According to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, one major duty of a journalist is to “Minimize Harm.” The SPJ states that, “ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.” I highly doubt that airing Cho praising the Columbine killers is minimizing harm. It only takes one more disturbed student to see that and gain inspiration from the videos.

Another point in the code of ethics is even more relative to the VTech situation:

“A Journalist should: Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects. Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.”

I personally feel that NBC did the opposite in this case by airing the Cho footage and no sensitivity was shown to the families. Apparently, the families of the victims agree with me. On Thursday morning, they were scheduled to appear on the Today show with Matt Lauer, but backed out after the footage was aired the previous night.

Coming to this conclusion was not easy for me, as I carefully thought through other journalistic reasons for NBC’s decision, but no matter what, nothing can outweigh the fact that they did not minimize harm and were insensitive to the families of this terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the families of the victims and am sickened that their pain had to be magnified because of the choices NBC made.

Sometime between the first and second shootings, NBC News reports that Cho Seung-Hui sent a “a rambling communication and videos about his grievences” to the network.

The package containing a 23 page diatribe and a 10 minute DVD arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza yesterday afternoon by US mail. The carrier alerted security to the orgin of the package and NBC notified the FBI.

NBC has released photos and video clips of the gunman’s last moments. They are insanely disturbing. He claims “This didn’t have to happen.” “You could have prevented this.” “You threw gasoline on the situation.” “You forced me into a corner.”

Click here to read the full story.

Here in Texas, now the site of the second-and-third most deadly mass shootings on American soil, people from students to doctors are arguing passionately for their right to carry a gun. Many conservative pundits (check out nationalreview.com for coverage of the pro-gun debate) are suggesting that it may be essential for every student to carry a gun in order to protect themselves should something happen in a classroom, or anywhere, for that matter.

I never really consider if anyone around me is carrying a gun; I don’t think I’ve even ever seen a real gun up close, besides on a police officer. But it is frightening to think that more people than I could imagine have weapons in their homes, their cars or actually on them.

And the thought of guns in the classroom, well, it makes me not want to go to class. Ever. I value safety and security, but not to the point where the pursuit of it causes me to live in fear of my lab partner’s semi-automatic going off in class.

I’ve never heard a positive story about a gun “saving” someone’s life or acting in a heroic manner. To be a hero you have to use your brain, not a gun– the two don’t mix, especially in a school setting. What do you think– would you carry a gun to class? It may seem like a ridiculous question, but it could become a real option.

Obviously, every student on Virgina Tech’s campus had their trusty Motorola‘s, LG‘s and Samsung‘s on hand Monday. Victims were able to warn fellow students of the shooter, his location, his appearace … They were even able to contact their parents and friends to say goodbye, or alert them to the fortunate fact that they were okay. And some even took the time to take camera pics and videos of what was going down.

As sad and heartbreaking as Monday’s incident was, it really made me recognize how valuable technology is, how necessary it is to always have our cell phones in our back pockets, in our bags, attached to our hips … Yes, sometimes it’s sick and creepy how attached people are to their Razr‘s and Blackberry‘s, but they allow us to communicate within seconds. And under some extreme circumstances, they really come in handy.

I guess we take these forms of communication for granted since they’re so easily available. But it’s kind of a priviledge to be so easily connected with people.

I never thought I’d say this but … cell phones save lives. Monday was proof of that.

(Read the rest of the article here)

I’ve been checking CNN.com as much as possible these last couple of days, reading updates about VTech, wanting, like everyone else, answers. I want to know why. Who. Who does this sort of thing and why?

As of 2:00 pm this afternoon, nobody really knows. Authorities have his name, but that’s about it. They have his name and they know he was “a loner”.

I’m tired of that word. I’m sick and tired of hearing it attached to these boys who walk into their schools and shoot innocent people. When we’re grasping for reasons, grasping for solutions, this is word we keep slapping on the front page of every media outlet going to print. He was a loner. As if that explains everything.

It doesn’t. It never has. Not to me.

What does the word loner even mean? These killers had no friends? These killers never talked to anyone around them? They ate alone? They had no roommates? They never raised their hands in class? They didn’t interact with their families? They had social issues that everyone could feel? They dressed strange? All of the above??

We can’t possibly hold ourselves accountable for fixing our classmates problems, but how can one person be so mentally and socially isolated that they have the capacity to walk into classrooms and systematically murder everyone around them?

Virginia Tech, like Columbine 8 years earlier (to almost the day. Columbine occurred on April 20th, 1999) is a horrible, heartbreaking tragedy. But there’s another tragedy underneath these two killings. The tragic isolation of these so-called loners. We, as a peer group, as a nation, need to spend more time looking into this disturbing phenomenon. Students have been bullied, isolated, lonely, since the beginning of formalized education, why is it having such devastating effects now? What is different in the 21st century that is allowing anger, depression, loneliness, and mental anguish to erupt into cruel, full scale violence?

Instead of throwing around overused, vague labels, we need to ask these questions, and not stop asking, until something is figured out.

I heard what happened on the news yesterday. I was shocked. But I can’t say what happened to those poor, unsuspecting students hit me until this morning when I saw the many V-Tech memorial groups on facebook. I saw pictures of the actual students who were shot and killed having fun with their friends, enjoying college, living a carefree life like the rest of us. I read other students’ comments from other schools and felt the sympathy and sadness in their words.

Check out the links to the memorial pages.

It has never been more apparent that we aren’t just self-involved, alcoholics who party five days a week. We care about what happens to our peers, people we don’t even know. We see and are concerned with how yesterday’s terrible incident affects the victims’ families and friends. We have all been sadened by the fact that not one of them expected to lose their life that day. Even more, we’re aware and scared by the fact that this could have happened on any of our campuses. We could have been victims too.

People are angry, people are pointing fingers at this shooter, some are saying that they’re glad he’s dead. But I want to know why. Why did he do what he did? What was it that happened between he and his girlfriend that made him snap? What made him so angry and irrational that he thought it’d be a good idea to hurt his fellow classmates?

I doubt there is a word out there that can actually describe what happened yesterday. All I know is, I was comforted when I saw how much love, concern and support is out there on other campuses … in something as small as a group on facebook. My heart goes out to all the victims and their loved ones.

Official Facebook Memorial Pages:

Tribute Page

Shooter Hate Page

Pray for VTech

Always Remember Virginia Tech

Victims Memorial Pages:

Emily Jane Hilscher

Ryan Christopher Clark a.k.a. Stack

Mary Read

Henry Lee

Leslie Sherman

Reema Samaha

Maxine Turner

Jarrett Lane

Matt La Porte

Brian Bluhm

Caitlin Hammaren

Daniel Perez

Ross Alameddine

Check back for more.