American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg once said, ""Whoever controls the media—the images—controls the culture."" This idea manifested itself in the days following the massacre at Virginia Tech University.
The day began like any other—with college students heading to class, news pundits critiquing the war in Iraq and debating the 2008 presidential election. And yet, hours later, every news station from cable to local television had reporters and cameras in Blacksburg, Va., covering the deadliest recorded shooting in U.S. history.
The media's coverage of the carnage, as well as its subsequent release of disturbing materials from the killer himself, may have done more than inform the American public of a national tragedy.
After killing two people in a Virginia Tech dormitory, Cho Seung-Hui left the campus to mail a package to NBC, which contained his manifesto, with images of him wielding his weapons and cursing at the world.
He then returned to the campus, unhindered, and finished his bloody rampage by taking thirty more lives in Virginia Tech's Norris Hall, before turning the gun on himself. By Wednesday, MSNBC had already posted parts of Cho's manifesto on its website. The network later stood by its decision as ""good journalism.""
But the disclosure was not good journalism. In the week following the massacre at Virginia Tech, minor school incidents such as bomb threats occurred in twenty-eight separate states—including Wisconsin. Furthermore, the next Friday, a deranged employee of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, sneaked a gun into work and held a woman hostage before turning the gun on himself, a move similar to Cho's but without the mass carnage.
Coincidence? To assume that these incidents are related to the killings at Virginia Tech is irresponsible. Then again, to assume that events occurring in one part of the country will not affect or influence subsequent events in other parts of the country is an ignorant assumption. One wonders whether these later incidents would have been as prevalent as they were had the Virginia Tech massacre not received its immense, round-the-clock media coverage.
U.S. citizens deserve to know the truth, but NBC should have waited longer before releasing materials to the public. Just because NBC had the material does not mean they had an obligation to immediately release it.
Still, one heartwarming aspect of MSNBC's coverage of the shootings is that it recognized each and every victim of the tragedy, conveying to U.S. citizens a sense of losing ""one of their own.""
But what can one take away from all of this? Go to MSNBC's website, and search for their special report on the massacre titled ""What We Know."" Upon arriving at the report's home page, ignore the killer's manifesto and the timeline of the carnage.
Instead, read the brief descriptions of each and every victim, from the triple-major undergrad to the renowned engineering science and mechanics professor and father of three, and rediscover the humanity that often falls by the wayside in modern American culture.
Only through this compassion may we come to realize a sense of peace in this nation, a peace that transcends the images we see on television and the Internet.
