At Online News Association Confab: Covering a 'Tragedy'

By: Pauline Millard A Virginia Tech senior who was once the resident advisor to Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who killed 32 students last spring, reminded journalists on Thursday to keep their humanity in check when covering tragedies such as school shootings.

Austin Morton was part of a panel about covering tragedies at the Online News Association conference in Toronto that included the Meg Smith, a researcher from The Washington Post and Tom Mallory of SignonSanDiego.com. The discussion was moderated by Bill Mitchell of Poynter Online.

The conference opened Wednesday night at the Sheraton Centre and concludes tonight with the annual awards dinner.

The panel showed journalists how to use Web tools such as Facebook in order to conduct quick research and addressed when to hold information for release.

"Respect is the simple solution,? Morton said. ?And remember to uphold the integrity of the profession.?

Morton said that she, as well as many other Virginia Tech students, often felt put off by the press in the wake of the tragedy. She lauded organizations such as The Washington Post and NPR for their sensitivity, but grew more frustrated with other unnamed journalists.

She said that in this age of technology it was easy to find contact information about students, right down to cell phone numbers, but once reporters approached the young people she found many were insensitive to their feelings.

One journalist, after being denied an interview, said to Morton, ?I know this sucks, but I would love to talk to you about it.?

Morton balked. ?It doesn?t ?suck? when 32 people die,? she said. ?It?s devastating. Reporters were looking to get information, but that didn?t always respect boundaries,? she said.

She was also frustrated when students were being quoted under the guise of being consoled.

?They didn?t know that things could be off the record,? Morton said. ?They don?t know what that means.?

Smith, from The Washington Post, was on the other side of the fence since she was one of the editors combing Facebook and trying to find students to talk to. She stumbled upon a Facebook group called ?I?m ok at VT? which was a rudimentary, but fairly accurate, way to track students who were missing.

Even though the Facebook page would name students who were killed, Smith waited until she was sure that the parents had been contacted by police before calling them.

Mitchell and Mallory stressed adhering to strong guidelines of accountability and transparency when dealing with sensitive information on tight deadlines.

Smith agreed. ?It?s important to remember old world journalism rules, especially when you find information online? she said. ?Use the principles you?ve always had: what if you heard a killer quote in the next bathroom stall? How would attribute that or follow up??