Virginia Tech as a Media Spectacle

Posted by: Alla on: June 10, 2007

• In: sxd | thoughts
• Leave a Comment

Here is a great analysis by one of my professors about Virginia Tech shooting:

Media Spectacle and the “Massacre at Virginia Tech” by Douglas Kellner

In class we also talked about how many members of Facebook changed their profiles pictures to this ribbon shown below. In fact, many VT student and alum profiles still contain this picture.

Once time passed, people were not sure of the appropriate etiquette as it regards online inteaction. How much time needs to pass before “it’s ok” to revert back to a normal profile picture, or is acceptable to post silly wall messages, and be happy in general. Additionally, some of the slain student’s profiles became “virtual memorials”, see the USA today piece for further details. One of the most interesting aspects of the memorialized profiles was that many people still posted messages directly to the slain person. Is this the virtual way of dealing with grief? Finally, here is an interesting blog post by an individual who lost a brother in an accident, and still visits his MySpace page.

Advertisement