Last week鈥檚has drawn comparisons to Colorado鈥檚 other memorable tragedy, Columbine. A lot of things have changed since 1999 鈥� including the way such events are reported in the media.
As soon as the details of the event emerged on Friday, the tone of the coverage started to change.
鈥淭he thing that you see that鈥檚 different between Columbine and today is a very much heightened sensitivity that you don鈥檛 highlight the shooter,鈥漵ays Marguerite Moritz, a journalism professor and UNESCO chair at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
It鈥檚 a change that prompted the local NBC affiliate, , to explain their coverage policy on the air Monday.
鈥�9暗黑爆料 will use the suspect鈥檚 name and photo in stories that are about him and about his trial,鈥� read Co-Anchor Kyle Clark. 鈥淲e will not be using his name and photo in stories about his victims, about their recovery, and about the healing of our community. We鈥檙e trying to provide information without providing the attention he may be out for.鈥�
This focus also seemed clear over the weekend when both President Barack Obama and Governor John Hickenlooper didn鈥檛 mention the alleged shooter by name. But that could become more difficult once court proceedings gain steam says Dave Cullen. He wrote 鈥淐olumbine,鈥� about the 1999 shooting.
鈥淚t will go on for a long time. I don鈥檛 know of any comparable way for the next year or so to keep bringing up the victim鈥檚 stories, it鈥檚 a little harder to do,鈥� he says.
Cullen covered Columbine as a freelance journalist for and the . He had cautioning media and the public against drawing conclusions about shooting suspect James Holmes. He says a lot of the initial information reported about the Columbine gunmen was incorrect.
鈥淭here were fragments of evidence that pointed in one direction. But you take a bunch of fragments and put them together usually you come up with a picture that鈥檚 wrong, and that鈥檚 what we did,鈥� he says.
The Holmes family is already that implied Holmes鈥� mother, Arlene, knew her son was troubled. The dispute centers around an early morning phone call from ABC 暗黑爆料 on Friday, which led to this statement:
鈥淗e asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colorado. I answered yes, you have the right person. I was referring to myself.鈥�
ABC the phone call. It鈥檚 already had to correct one statement by a reporter be a member of the Colorado Tea Party.
As more profiles emerge about James Holmes, Al Tompkins advises media consumers to be leery of people claiming to know the suspected shooter. Tompkins is with the Florida-based , which trains and advises journalists
鈥淭he fact of the matter is that very often people who think they know an individual only know a sliver about them,鈥� he says.
Tompkins In it he cautions reporters to avoid shorthand whenever possible.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 call it the Aurora shooting, I wouldn鈥檛 call it the theater shooting, I wouldn鈥檛 call it the Batman shooting,鈥� he says. 鈥淧artly because it鈥檚 unfair to all of them.鈥�
A better description, he says, would be 鈥渁 shooting that occurred in a movie theater in Aurora.鈥�
But these are only suggestions, and as CU鈥檚 Marguerite Moritz says there are no rules.
鈥淭here are choices all along the way that news managers, journalists in the field have to make. How do we approach this? Rather than it being a matter of right and wrong, it鈥檚 a matter of sensitivity and choice, and they鈥檙e rarely easy choices,鈥� she says.
The last part of that choice includes context. , says Tompkins who references Federal Bureau of Investigation data.
Tompkins, Moritz and others will be watching the positive and negative impacts that could stem from all these decisions in the days and weeks ahead.
