As someone already pointed out, the student population is bigger than nearly all cities in Virginia. Not to mention, this was an unprecedented event.
The student body hardly have anything to do with this. The crime happened on campus, and it is the students on campus who are in direct danger. I know most school has a reverse 911 system that allows voice mail broadcast to every hard-wired telephone on campus, why wasn't it used? It is unprecedented in the way that this is worst shooting in American history. But it is not unprecedented that a killer keep killing before he gets caught.
Here is a prove that VT do have a comprehensive emergency response system. But they were not used: http://www.ehss.vt.edu/Programs/OSD/VTEPG/VPI3/Introduction.html
And I understand that someone's natural reaction after losing a loved one would be wanting to blame people for what could've been done. I feel very sorry for those in charge at Virginia Tech. They're going to have to live with this the rest of their lives, probably always blaming themselves. I just hate that the media has to pile on. Not surprised, though.
I'm agreeing with you. I think it's a shame. I think it's way too early to be jumping to conclusions to start assigning blame.
the main issue is not the media, but actually the response of the student body and the victims' families. the culprit is the killer, that is undisputable, but what is fair to look at is also the response to the situation.
of course it's fair. but let's not be so knee-jerk. how about we bury the bodies before we start indicting the university president?
Its ridiculous, I had to stop watching last night. During a press conferece they were like sharks circling a wounded seal. Then later last night they were even trying to bait students into railing on the university and police, the ones I saw didn't. The weird thing was that I noticed Fox (Greta) was the best one to watch for actual coverage.
I feel sorry for them too, but there are people getting paid to prevent events such as this, and they failed at their job, that failure cost 32 lives.
we just learned the name of the killer. we just learned a bit about him other than that he was Chinese (oops!! he's Korean!!). we're getting information trickling out. but to pretend that you know you'd act differently in a situation like this...without having all the facts to begin with...is silly.
Instead of thinking that violent media spawns violence, it seems to me the more logical way to see it is that our violent society and culture spawns violent media. Violence and entertainment have gone hand in hand since the first plays were performed in the ancient world, so it's not even new. I think the reason this is brought up is because people still percieve videogames as toys that are meant for children only. Since children are impressionable, they want to say that kids are "trained" to be emotionless killers by these violent toys. How many people have ever tried to blame the Godfather for acts of murder? Probably nobody because people think of it as a movie for adults. Personally, I think that some people just have things happen in their lives that they don't deal with properly and eventually become mentally disturbed. There weren't any videogames or hyper violent movies influencing Whitman when he climbed that tower and started picking off people at UT. He had visited with a psychologist though and had even expressed the desire to start shooting people with a deer rifle. The worst case of school violence, this is something my brother has brought to my attention, was a bombing, 3 actually, by a man named Andrew Kehoe in the 1920s. He claimed to be angry about property taxes being too high and leading to financial trouble. He killed his wife, blew up his farm, set off an explosion at the school that was funded by those taxes while the firemen were at his farm, then drove up in his car while people were gathering at the school and set off a bomb in his car killing himself and one more person. 45 people died, including himself. 37 of the victims were children from ages 7 to 14. Later they found out the guy had enough property he could have sold to pay off his mortgage. A scary anecdote about him was when he was young, his stepmother, who he fought with, was horribly burned when the stove blew up while she was lighting it. He actually watched her burn for a few minutes before trying to put her out. She eventually died from the accident. This kind of mass deranged killing doesn't happen often, but it happens. We've just created technology that makes it easier to kill people now. I know you aren't saying ban videogames, but to even try and levy the blame on videogames is just not the answer. It seems like some people can't handle stresses that most of us cope with and they let that push them to do things that the majority of us could never imagine. This was a sign Kehoe left on his fence, a last message of sorts. The only thing I can really say about media influence though, is that 24 hour news coverage of something like Columbine probably gives messed up people an idea of how to lash out in a way that they'll be remembered forever.
I think the media has a massive effect on how we view the world and how we view life. All forms of media. It leads culture, I believe. That's just my take from my experience. I feel like I've seen it lead culture in all sorts of issues.
Max, we live in an increasingly mad society. (no pun intended) I have 2 very bright kids who'll be going off to college, with the first sailing away in 2 years. Universities need to be prepared for the worst scenarios. My father was a prof and department chair for decades and, as I mentioned earlier, I practically grew up on a university campus. My sister was going to UT during the Whitman shootings, and happened to be off campus at the time, thank goodness. I would be willing to bet that UT has procedures for something like this, and it has twice the population. The critical thing, from where I sit, was that there was a shooting with multiple deaths and injuries, with the perp still loose. It's possible that no matter what the university did after that first incident that a similar tragedy might occur. Having said that, I think more should have been done. If one of my kids were going to a university and a similar incident occurred, I would expect more done to notify and protect the students and faculty than the efforts we saw in this instance. Wouldn't you? I'm not trying to play some blame game. This is horrific, and we need to learn from it. I truly feel for the campus police and administrators. What they must be feeling right now is indescribable.
yes, i would act differently, to act on the side of prudence, whether all the facts are in or not, should be the course of action. facts aside. when it deals with human life, yes, i would "overreact" if there is such a thing as "overreacting" to people dying.
