During the day of the shootings at Virginia Tech, I spent a good part of the day watching news coverage like many other people. I was shocked and frightened trying to understand what had just happened. But of everything I watched and heard that day on television, one anecdote really stuck in my mind and made me think. A Virginia Tech student was being interviewed and he spoke about how his friend fighting in Iraq, called him to see if he was okay. How ironic is that? One person is off experiencing war first-hand every day, yet he has to call a friend thousands of miles away just to see if he’s alive?
This student’s story emphasized how sad and significant this senseless tragedy was, but it also made me think about how much coverage the media budgets to tragedies and deaths like at Virginia Tech and how little the media allocates to the War in Iraq. For example, according to Reuters, at least 82 non-insurgents were killed or had their bodies found in Iraq the same day as the Virginia Tech shootings. This story, however, received no media coverage that day while coverage of the shooting was replayed over and over with little new information coming in. By no means am I trying to downplay the tragedy at Virginia Tech. This was the worst shooting in U.S. history and a story that no one will likely forget. It deserved the large magnitude of coverage that it received. In Iraq, however, massacres occur every day, yet it consistently receives little media coverage other than reporting death tolls. My point is that at least 82 people died at war thousands of miles away and that story deserved coverage too. The media attention given to the Virginia Tech shootings just shows that most of the American people forget that bigger massacres are happening every day around the world.
It’s pretty easy to understand why something like the Virginia Tech shootings receives so much media coverage, while the War in Iraq does not. To put it bluntly, school shootings do not happen every day (especially of this magnitude) while people are going to die every day in a war. One is a shock, the other is expected. The media devoted days of straight Virginia Tech coverage because that’s simply what the American people wanted to know about. In fact, if a news outlet had anything else on television, it’s likely people would have changed the channel to coverage of the shootings.
But, the coverage allocated to events on the day of the Virginia Tech shootings doesn’t bother me as much as the way the War in Iraq is generally reported. Most Americans aren’t just that concerned with international news. I don’t think that comes as a surprise to anyone. But are they not concerned because it doesn’t interest them or are they not concerned because the media doesn’t present it enough or in a way to make people concerned? Would people be more concerned and aware of the war of the media reported it more in-depth? No one can answer these questions for sure, but I think they are important to consider. We’ve learned that part of a journalist’s role is to act a watchdog and decide what the public needs to know. But in this watchdog role, it always seems like the journalists (especially the TV ones) are just focusing on the bombings and the deaths in Iraq without presenting much more than that. Why can’t we have more positive stories about the soldiers risking their lives for our country, for example? It’s the journalists’ job to inform the public of what’s happening and what’s important and there are other stories happening than bombings and death tolls.
Massacres happen all over the world, but until it happens inside your little bubble, the weight doesn’t really sink in. The Virginia Tech tragedy was absolutely horrible. But, hopefully people will realize from this that all life is precious, and have similar reactions to some of the violence going on in the rest of the world. After all, it’s up to the journalists to help get them there.
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