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Was the Oakland rampage downplayed? And why?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Dick Whitman, Apr 3, 2012.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Didn't do a ton of homework on this yet, but I'll try at a later time. But the NYT played it on A10 today, with a front teaser. CNN.com just had it as a headline down the side yesterday. Other sites also resisted the temptation to blow it up, even on a relatively light news day.

    Why?

    Was it because the media has collectively decided not to glorify these incidents and encourage copy cats?

    Is it a bigger story when it happens at Virginia Tech, Columbine, or Northern Illinois and we have students shooting students?

    Does the fact that they were all Korean and not white or black - i.e. fer'ners - somehow mitigate against playing it high, even subconsciously?
     
  2. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    Or because it was a "religious school"?
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I live out here, so obviously it wasn't underplayed to me. But assuming this is true for the nationwide accounts, I would say one large factor is this isn't a "real" college. From what I gather it's a very niche-oriented "school" in the loosest sense, located in a warehouse near the airport. It's more like a workplace shooting than a school one.
     
  4. rmanfredi

    rmanfredi Active Member

    Yes. From a national standpoint, the odds that this impacted you personally (i.e. you went to that school or know someone who does/did) is pretty small.
     
  5. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I think most news orgs are geared toward middle-class and upper-middle-class parents with children living with them. We see the inevitable "every parent's worst nightmare" angles - maybe news orgs don't think most parents would have kids attending a non-accredited acupuncture school. More likely - news managers couldn't relate to the story, so they don't think their audiences would as well.
    I do think Dick hints at an interesting point - these events do seem to get played up when they happen in rural or suburban settings, don't know if it's a "neener, neener, neener" response to areas where people talk about how important gun rights are - or maybe, in cases like a mass shooting in Oakland or other urban settings, they can't opine about well-manicured lawns and a tight-knit community or find anyone to say "I can't believe something like this happened here."
     
  6. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    We are a good distance from Oakland and had it on Page 1, below the fold.
     
  7. Lieslntx

    Lieslntx Active Member

    While I fundamental do not like to often agree with Dick, I have to admit that I wondered why there was not more coverage about it.
     
  8. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Are we talking about newspapers or are we talking about cable TV? Two considerably different things.

    Front page analysis at the NYT.

    www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/us/oikos-university-gunman-lined-up-victims.html?hp
     
  9. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    That story is not on the front page of the print edition.
     
  10. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    It's on the front page, and is the most-viewed story, at the website.

    Interesting discussion to be had about when, if or how we reach the tipping point between paper and digital culture in newsgathering.
     
  11. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    ?

    Even if well written, this makes no sense.
     
  12. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    An obvious point is that it is very easy to move a story to a more prominent spot on a Web site in response to traffic, comments, etc. and it is very difficult for a newspaper with a national circulation to move stories around in its print edition.
     
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