Virginia Tech shootings
I was feeling slightly guilty about not having the time to blog last week (despite reading, believe it or not) when the shootings at Virginia Tech took place. First and foremost, this is an awful, violent and incomprehensible tragedy for our country and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. But I could not help thinking, while watching news coverage with friends last night that both our crisis communications training we’ve learned in this class and our prior knowledge of media framing are applicable in this situation.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that the Columbine shootings took place. I remember I was here at UF in undergrad and I heard about them much through the same way that I heard about the VT shootings – word-of-mouth from other students. Back then, the Internet wasn’t as prevalent as it is now, where you can get updates every few minutes. I just looked at Yahoo! News and this was posted about a half-hour ago:
…BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students….
What strikes me most about this sentence is the “before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.” What an insensitive and irresponsible statement for the media to make. As I said earlier, the framing by the media about this tragedy was absolutely ridiculous and offensive. I couldn’t quite tell if it was because of lack of access to the appropriate spokespeople/family members/students but every news program focused on how the university let down the students, how they weren’t alerted soon enough immediately following the first shooting around 7:30 a.m. Emails were first sent out from what I am assuming is a university relations office around 9:30 a.m….two hours later. This action begs the question of whether VT had a crisis communication plan or whether it was implemented correctly. Who ultimately made the decision…public relations/affairs staff, the university president, university police?
Students and parents are now openly complaining to the media that VT let them down, that they and their students were not fairly warned or made to understand the severity of this rampage. But in a crisis situation, can everything go to plan? What about using a crisis plan that wasn’t designed for tragedy of this magnitude? Coombs states, “Actual crisis damage should be less than the anticipated crisis damage if the crisis management efforts were effective” (p. 136). But who could have foreseen this event, a senseless and seemingly random act? Who could have designed a crisis management plan for something this atrocious?
Coombs also states, that “media portrayals of the organization and the crisis can be critical in shaping the perceptions of other stakeholders involved in the crisis” (p. 140). You think? All I’m reading right now, about 15 hours after this story first broke nationally, are statements such as:
"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," (student quote on Yahoo! News)
“Too Few Warnings at Virginia Tech?” (Time.com headline)
and “Parents Demand Firing of Virginia Tech President, Police Chief Over Handling” (foxnews.com headline)
Coombs says that “skilled crisis managers communicate to stakeholders through channels other than news media” (p. 141). Ideally, yes. But it seems we are still learning exactly who was in charge of communication at VT, or even if law enforcement acted according to its crisis plan. The human factors, the victims, those injured and their families are clearly of most importance and not far behind are other students wondering just what went wrong and where do they go from here. It made me think of the Danny Rollings killings here at UF in 1990. Mass chaos and confusion coupled with the absolute necessity of pinning down someone to blame is a volatile combination. But Coombs tells us that “the purposes are learning and improving crisis performance, not placing blame” (p. 144). However, because the media has already, in such a short time, done such a stellar job of placing blame and focusing the attention away from the victims, the tragedy and the clear irrationality and instability of the shooter and instead on VT’s lack of or poorly chosen or executed crisis communication plan, I know it will be a long road ahead for VT’s president.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that the Columbine shootings took place. I remember I was here at UF in undergrad and I heard about them much through the same way that I heard about the VT shootings – word-of-mouth from other students. Back then, the Internet wasn’t as prevalent as it is now, where you can get updates every few minutes. I just looked at Yahoo! News and this was posted about a half-hour ago:
…BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students….
What strikes me most about this sentence is the “before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.” What an insensitive and irresponsible statement for the media to make. As I said earlier, the framing by the media about this tragedy was absolutely ridiculous and offensive. I couldn’t quite tell if it was because of lack of access to the appropriate spokespeople/family members/students but every news program focused on how the university let down the students, how they weren’t alerted soon enough immediately following the first shooting around 7:30 a.m. Emails were first sent out from what I am assuming is a university relations office around 9:30 a.m….two hours later. This action begs the question of whether VT had a crisis communication plan or whether it was implemented correctly. Who ultimately made the decision…public relations/affairs staff, the university president, university police?
Students and parents are now openly complaining to the media that VT let them down, that they and their students were not fairly warned or made to understand the severity of this rampage. But in a crisis situation, can everything go to plan? What about using a crisis plan that wasn’t designed for tragedy of this magnitude? Coombs states, “Actual crisis damage should be less than the anticipated crisis damage if the crisis management efforts were effective” (p. 136). But who could have foreseen this event, a senseless and seemingly random act? Who could have designed a crisis management plan for something this atrocious?
Coombs also states, that “media portrayals of the organization and the crisis can be critical in shaping the perceptions of other stakeholders involved in the crisis” (p. 140). You think? All I’m reading right now, about 15 hours after this story first broke nationally, are statements such as:
"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," (student quote on Yahoo! News)
“Too Few Warnings at Virginia Tech?” (Time.com headline)
and “Parents Demand Firing of Virginia Tech President, Police Chief Over Handling” (foxnews.com headline)
Coombs says that “skilled crisis managers communicate to stakeholders through channels other than news media” (p. 141). Ideally, yes. But it seems we are still learning exactly who was in charge of communication at VT, or even if law enforcement acted according to its crisis plan. The human factors, the victims, those injured and their families are clearly of most importance and not far behind are other students wondering just what went wrong and where do they go from here. It made me think of the Danny Rollings killings here at UF in 1990. Mass chaos and confusion coupled with the absolute necessity of pinning down someone to blame is a volatile combination. But Coombs tells us that “the purposes are learning and improving crisis performance, not placing blame” (p. 144). However, because the media has already, in such a short time, done such a stellar job of placing blame and focusing the attention away from the victims, the tragedy and the clear irrationality and instability of the shooter and instead on VT’s lack of or poorly chosen or executed crisis communication plan, I know it will be a long road ahead for VT’s president.
posted by Lauren at
4/17/2007 01:55:00 AM
|
0 comments
