When police said the alleged victim told them her parents were enraged because the unborn child's jailed father was black, it became a story everyone wanted a piece of. Soon Nicholas and Lola Kampf's struggles with their daughter Katelyn were hashed out on talk radio in Atlanta, in newspapers from Topeka, Kan. to London, England, and on 24-hour TV. ...

... The story led local newscasts for a week and appeared on the front page of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram five times in eight days. But by the time the Kampfs categorically denied their daughter's version of events, the national interest had waned.

How the Kampf story climbed from a family crisis to national prominence speaks to the way news is put together and consumed in an era of change in the media. Media experts say that stories that generate platforms for opinions are highly prized. And technological advances and economic forces mean no story is really local anymore. ...