Media and Columbine

I am currently reading Columbine by David Cullen for my book club. One of the chapters deals with the effects media had on the event as it unfolded. Columbine was the first school shooting that happened in the cell phone age. It was the first national crisis aired live on television in the cell phone age. The effects of media on the incident vary from cell phones students used during the shooting, to the social networking pages that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had , to the live television coverage of the event. A lot of the evidence that showed the crime was premeditated came from Harris and Klebold's computers, including their search histories and MySpace pages. Because the school was wired with cameras, the events that unfolded were recorded on camera. One of the most interesting things about the tragic event is the way that media effected the supposed causes of the event while it was unfolding and during the aftermath. During the attack, students were calling in to 911 and local television stations. Students were watching what was unfolding on television and calling local and cable network stations to report from the inside. Some of them didn't realize how sharing the information with a cable network live on TV was actually endangering them. One student who was hiding underneath a chair in an upstairs classroom started to discuss his position to a television anchor. The anchor eventually cut him off to protect him from the shooters who also might be listening in on the conversation. Another important role the media played was what happened following the attack. In the aftermath, students were contacting each other about what happened and spread false information that soon became looked at as fact. At first just a few students misidentified the shooters as members of a clique known as the Trench Coat Mafia. At first it was one student saying this. Then it was reported to the media and more students grew to think it was true because they heard it on TV. Eventually members of the media heard the message that it was the Trench Coat Mafia that caused the incident, and they said it was true because students believed it. The students were relying on the media and the media on the students to know what the truth was. All in all, it shows that with the growth of cell phones that rapidly transmit data from anywhere, rumors spread faster than ever. It also goes to show that truth is relative. Depending on the media to know the truth or the witnesses of an event to know the truth is not necessarily the best way to get things done.