The New York Times sent out a breaking news alert at 10:29am. They were my first source of news.

I got an ABC breaking news e-mail at 1:20 p.m. (Eastern). Then turned to Twitter and MSNBC and CNN.

Nancy, Matthew — were your push alerts on mobile devices? Since this was a weekend event, I suspect many people were away from their “home appliances” — or work devices.

I was out on a walk with my dog when the news broke, but when I got back, a friend had posted something along the lines of “praying that cooler heads prevail in Arizona” on Facebook. I went to CNN to see what she was talking about.

We were preoccupied most of the afternoon with a memorial service we were both covering as a story and attending as a former colleague, so I don’t recall hearing about it until firing up the laptop in the car on the way back from the service (which was 45 minutes east of our home). It was definitely via Twitter, which is how I hear about 95% of national/world news of note, since otherwise I am immersed in the mega-local news with which we make our living.

To another interesting point in your item here: I agree re: “spree.” As stylebook editor/enforcer for most of the old-media newsrooms where I managed or produced for more than 20 years, I had several entries along those lines. Another: Discouraging the use of “bold” or “daring” when describing some particularly outlandish/shocking criminal act – those words also ring as if the act were positive, or admirable. Instead, I asked for “brazen” if an adjective were merited at all.

While it’s great to focus on spelling, grammar, accuracy, keep in mind those aren’t the only traits to cultivate. Subjectivity creeps in (on little cat feet) … I once got caught up in a kerfuffle over a 60-year-old woman having been described by a producer as “elderly” in a story about a car crash. I was later busted for, in my retelling of the anecdote, describing said producer as “young” (which means under 25, in my mind – but doesn’t belong anywhere in my copy!).

Hi West Seattle: (Tracy? Patrick? Either of the stalwart leaders…howdy!)

Your “elderly” anecdote brings back my memory of a similar incident in the newsroom I led for many years. A producer did the same thing, but as I recall the “elderly” man who died shoveling snow was 58.
Viewers called to voice their displeasure at our choice of adjectives (this was when the phone was a newsroom’s only technology for immediate viewer interactivity).

We had a robust conversation in the newsroom about point of view — but took it further. We assigned a reporter to do a story on “How old is elderly?” — and when we introduced it on the news, we were transparent about our own writing gaffe that led us to do the story.

Keep the faith,
Jill

I was flipping through all news channels and saw it first on Fox.
I also saw them report that she was dead (“Fox Confirms:”) while CNN was at a commercial.

Good question. I’d be interested to see it asked a second time, but to those who aren’t in the news business, to see how the answers may vary.

I’d like to see that kind of study, too, Anjanette. This one was just a non-scientific exercise in curiosity. At first, I was just going to put the query on my Facebook page for my own interest — then realized it might be an interesting story, so I made it clear to my FB friends they were on the record. It would be fascinating to see what real research into the general population would turn up.

Yes, a more formal study would be worthwhile. To continue this informality, though, I asked a few friends who are not journalists and most said TV (Fox/CNN), and the two who didn’t said they saw the story on Facebook. Because of the timing of the news, I’ll bet most newspaper websites didn’t reach people unless they found them on Facebook or through alerts — but then again none of my friends in this non-scientific survey use alerts. Thanks for writing about this exercise, Jill.