When Morality Matters Most: Interviewing children at the scene of a school shooting
Open Access
Author:
Kennan, Shannon Stevens
Graduate Program:
Mass Communications
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 04, 2017
Committee Members:
Patrick Robert Parsons, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Russell Frank, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Yael Warshel, Committee Member Amy Dyanna Marshall, Committee Member Carlomagno Del Carmen Panlilio, Outside Member
Keywords:
Journalism Ethics Trauma Child Development School Shooting
Abstract:
This paper explores the lived experience of parents, children, reporters and editors at the scene of a school shooting. From the lived experience of parents and children, seven themes emerged: confusion, communication/how found out, waiting, reunion, interactions with the news media, loss of trust in the news media, and social media. From the lived experience of reporters and editors, six themes emerged: how people found out/first few hours, conflicts of interest/overlapping roles, difference between locals and out-of-towners, newsroom dynamics, relationship between media and subjects, and accuracy. Drawing from these lived experiences and existing journalism ethics guidelines, a new set of ethical guidelines for reporting from an acute, single-event traumatic event such as a school shooting is proposed. A module to help train journalists about trauma and how it affects their subjects is also provided.