A World on the Edge of their Seats
Caroline Black, CT Features Staff
April 17, 2007
Possibly one of the only places on campus still buzzing with activity last night was Holtzman Alumni Center, inside the Inn at Virginia Tech, which had been designated as an impromptu media center. As international media descended upon our quiet town yesterday, a need for order regarding the many reporters, vans and cameramen arose that we never thought we'd need.
Those people were directed to the Inn, where the back area was offered as a place for the media to gather and begin the process of covering such a monumental and tragic course of events. Hundreds of cameras were poised and ready, lights blaring and on-air reporters straightening their ties and smoothing their hair as they prepared to go on-air for one last update on the late news.
After last August, most of the Tech and Blacksburg community was glad to see our fifteen minutes pass and get back to our days of being known for stellar academics and athletics, rather than such freak incidents. One of the last places we hoped we'd see our name plastered again was CNN, but that is where it was yesterday, as well as every other news affiliate in the country and many around the world.
When a story like this breaks, it seems as if it is on the news in record time, and soon familiar images begin to appear on every channel, Hokie stone and Drillfield grass in the background of every camera shot and published photo. The chain of command is sometimes long, but always stunningly quick in the news world. It begins, as you might expect, from the ground level, with reports of the activity on campus being sent to the local news, usually via police scanner or eyewitnesses calling in.
As the reports grow, they gather more attention. When they begin to reach major news outlets, it is usually a split-second decision that will decide the fate of the story. If it, like the story of yesterday's tragedy, garners massive public interest and concern, it will immediately become the new priority for whatever news media is reporting.
As an off-air reporter with a capitol news bureau in D.C., Ashley Patterson is mostly in charge of covering new developments in the Senate and activity taking place on Capitol Hill. Today was supposed to be a day just like any other. "At our news bureau in Washington, we already had our stories picked out this morning, we were going to follow the Gonzalez thing," she recalls. "Then at around 10 or 11 reports started coming in over the wires."
Patterson mirrored the disbelief felt all over the Virginia area when she remarked, "When we saw [the number] reach 22, we thought there was no way. They must have mistaken the word "dead" for people who were wounded. When we realized there was no mistake, that's when we decided we were going to drop our stories and send our people over here [to Virginia Tech]."
As soon as they realized the severity of the situation, a news team with Patterson included made the five-hour trip from D.C. to Blacksburg in a van with all of the equipment necessary for reporting, as well as on-air broadcasting.
Last night was just the beginning for Patterson, as well as the dozens of other news affiliates represented. Tonight she will "shoot, interview and edit" all of the news for the over 20 news stations and 12 print newspapers her bureau services. "The newspapers will put it on their websites, and the print reporters will use the sound bites in their news articles. Then finally our TV stations will run it on their news."
Ross Cavitt, a reporter from WSB in Atlanta, is working with Cox television on this story, which has affiliates all over the country. They are here indefinitely "to cover all of the developing news," says Cavitt. "However, our first priority is to make sure if we get any calls or anything, to find anyone who may be related to family and friends in the areas we are covering for." He will also "continue monitoring the news conferences here, make sure I'm up to speed on what's going on, and cover it until I'm told to come home."
One reporter, Piotr Krasko, is a correspondant from Polish Television based in Washington D.C. The call to come down to Blacksburg came in an instant this afternoon, he says. "They called from my office in Poland, asking if I could come here. This was breaking news in Europe, as well as the rest of the world." Due to the time difference, it was during the night in Poland that most of this occurred, but this will "absolutely" be the main story tomorrow morning in news throughout Poland, said Krasko.
It is clear that this tragedy has affected the entire world in a deep and immediate way, making it breaking news in all parts of the world. As everyone attempts to come to terms with events of this Monday, the rest of the world mourns along with Virginia Tech, and also like us, are glued to their televisions, waiting for any an all of the latest updated information.