On April 16, Bobby Bowman became a managing editor, a source, part of a story that devastated his university and one of its ambassadors -- all at once.
The day that student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University was Bowman's first day as a managing editor of the
Collegiate Times. As a student affected by the tragedy, he was called by networks from
FOX News to
Al Jazeera. He later was approached on campus by
Geraldo Rivera, who also asked him a few questions.
This weekend was another first for Bowman. On his first business trip, he spoke at the
National Writers Workshop in Wichita. He wore a maroon golf shirt bearing the now-familiar VT logo.
The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle and Poynter co-sponsored the event.
CT staff members confronted a story that would challenge even the most accomplished journalist. And many of them aren't even journalism majors. Bowman, 21, is studying industrial systems engineering.
While
CT journalists tried to go overboard with the amount of journalism they produced, in print and online, they were restrained in tone and treatment. They keenly felt part of the community they were covering. At least one staffer, news editor Saira Haider, lost a friend,
Reema Samaha. She responded by working more than 50 hours that week.
CT photo editor Shaozhuo Cui, who went
to West Ambler Johnston Hall after he heard about the first shots that Monday, matched the description of the suspect, an Asian male in a black jacket. "He was handcuffed, stepped on, guns were pointed at him," Bowman said. "They took his camera. He got it back that Thursday." The
CT wound up using his pictures that Friday.
In a Q&A with
Joe Hight, managing editor for research and development at
The Oklahoman and president of the
Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, Bowman said the student paper did not play the ubiquitous photo of the student who tied a computer cable around his wounded leg to stop the bleeding. Instead, the
CT showed a backlit photo of students with their arms around each other at a vigil. Part of the text beneath it said, "It is vital that we reach out to their friends and families, and bear down against circumstances turned against us."
Bowman said his newsroom did not give prominent play to photos of the gunman; in fact, Bowman had argued for even less exposure than the paper ended up running. The
CT did not call for sanctions against university or police officials.
The paper did publish dozens of photos and thousands of words, starting with a one-line Web posting at 9:47 a.m. April 16 that shots had been fired inside Ambler Johnston. "We posted it right away online about the first shooting," Bowman said.
The Web site crashed about 10:30 a.m. that day, and the
CT went back up about 11 a.m. “We were given
this page on College Media and given the authority to just do stuff. Each new story would go on top of the one prior to it," Bowman said. "It was a way to get information as soon as it was going. That's why we're there. We're there for the readers and this was the best way to get it out there."
The
CT staff worked through the night to write vignettes that would dignify the 32 killed. Staff members filled pages and screens all week long, working 40, 50 or 60 hours. They showed resourcefulness when their cell phones wouldn’t work and when professional reporters called their office phones incessantly. And, they kicked each other out of their newsroom to go participate in a vigil as students.
The vignettes were a challenge. These were their first obituaries.
"Kelly Furnas, our adviser, he's the only reason we did as well as we did. He gave us a 30-minute workshop on how to contact families in a nice way to ask for stories about these people." Bowman said Furnas assembled 32 packets that contained background on the individual victims -- one for each person slain -- to be distributed to a staff far smaller than that number. The packets also had a sheet on how to locate and interview the families.
Wednesday's front page carried a large photo of a bugler. The overline said, "We are the Hokies. We are proud. We are Virginia Tech."
Thursday's front page [PDF] featured photos of different vigils and tributes and the headline, "Beginning to heal."
And
Friday's front page [PDF] had no photo at all. Its main artwork was a ribbon made up of questions that the
CT staff knew were on students' minds: "What was he like?" "What will the rest of the semester be like?" "How long will the media stay?" Bowman said
CT staffers asked each other, "What would readers appreciate?"
How did they handle the stories and their complicated roles?
The staff did not agree on every decision. Bowman says there are things he would do differently now.
Bowman is the
CT's editor in chief this summer. The first issue with him at the helm will come out Thursday. "On our paper Thursday, there will be four or five stories and most will reference (the shootings). Someday, he said, "it will be nice to have ... some paper that has nothing to do with April 16. It will be nice to be back to normal."
Joe Hight plans to put additional information about the Collegiate Times
' response on the Dart Web site. Hight's interest in trauma and journalism dates back to the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, almost 12 years to the day before the Virginia Tech shootings. Hight was in his newsroom at the time. Bowman is writing a narrative about how the CT
staff covered the story.
