http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/09/gunman-who-shot-a-doctor-at-johns-hopkins-hospital-still-at-large/1
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/16/maryland.hospital.shooting/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1
http://abcnews.go.com/US/shooting-inside-baltimores-johns-hopkins-hospital/story?id=11654462
The story I decided to track is actually a breaking news story that has been blowing up on the internet. The story is of a Gunman who shot and killed himself, a relative, and a doctor at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. On the USA Today Website, the article states a timeline of what times throughout the day events were occuring in order to keep the public informed. The earliest post said that the man who shot the doctor was still armed and was not contained, and throughout the day the police gave updates and finally the last update said the gunman shot and killed himself and a relative and the doctor who had been shot was going to be okay. In the CNN report makes the note to explain that the doctor was rushed to surgery and identified the man to be African American and in his 30's. The article corrects its previous statement that earlier the police said that officers shot and killed the man but that this was later incorrect. The ABC news website says that the doctor will also be okay and both CNN and ABC news both quoted the chief of public affairs for the Baltimore Police Department saying, "The doctor is going to be OK – he's in the best place in the world" ABC news also issued a statement in their article that Johns Hopkins had issued to the press. There were some differences, two of the websites said that the man was of African American descent and in his thirties. ABC news stated that the doctor was shot in his abdomen. ABC News also reported that the reasoning behind the shooting was that the gunman was upset about the treatment of his mother and was threatening to jump out the window. The ABC website defintely gave the most detailed report of the story. None of the websites have severe differences in their stories. The facts are all the same and due to the intensity of the story and that updates have been given throughout the course of the day, all of these cites gave good descriptions of the event.
--Colleen
Is it just me, or are there more gunmen than usual running around these days? I think it would be interesting to compare these stories, that were written as the story was breaking to a story written in retrospect in a week or two. Perhaps someone will try to use the recent surge of violent gunmen as symbolic crimes and push for stricter gun control laws.
ReplyDeleteI think this series of events pretty much sums up certain problems with the media, especially the news. Here these three news stations were all trying to get the story out as quick as possible. By doing this they have flaws in what they put out because they do not have the time to check to see if the information is factual. Which you can cleary see above that some statements were false. I think this was a great story that points out how getting information out quick can led to untrue information.
ReplyDeleteOh, TJ..I guess that's why you need to be in this class! Just because we've heard about a couple of recent stories involving gunmen does not mean there has been an increase..we'll talk about that more in a couple of weeks!
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