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.

If you haven’t gotten the memo already, tomorrow has been declared “Orange and Maroon Effect Day” and alllll students are being asked to sport Hokie colors. Tons of Facebook groups promoting the orange and maroon-wear have tallied thousands of college kids who promise to don VTech threads Friday.

So whip out some orange and maroon tomorrow. Not only will getting dressed after a Thursday night of drinking be made that much simpler, but you’ll also be making an serious statement.

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.

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.