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Cho’s behavior reveals just how desperate he was to become recognized within the public eye. He took time out of his attack to physically send a news station several materials to explain himself. It is assumed that Cho did this with a desire for fame. After NBC posted online some of the materials, the network received public backlash. More than 1,200 comments were posted on NBC’s message board in response to Cho’s mailed materials in less than 12 hours (Johnson, 2007).

Overall, Cho’s actions show recognition of the fact that the media at the time could spread his story. Without Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media platforms, it is certain that news coverage of the shooting would not have reached as many people as quickly. It is interesting to compare the media coverage of Columbine and Virginia Tech because the two incidents received such different reactions due to the eight-year time difference. Clearly, as social media and the digital world developed, news coverage became amplified more easily.

Parkland

The Parkland shooting is the third and last shooting included in this comparative analysis. Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 14 students and three teachers on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Cruz purposely set off the fire alarm in order to draw students and staff outside of their classrooms. All within an hour and a half, the shooting took place, the shooter escaped, and was arrested (Chavez, 2018). The media coverage of this incident was unlike any other, creating millions of posts on social media platforms and highlighting powerful student-run protests and campaigns for weeks on end.

The coverage of the Parkland shooting occurred during the media’s most-developed era and attracted attention from political leaders, celebrities, and especially students all over the nation. It is important to recognize that by 2018 it is not uncommon for individuals to solely rely on social media and online news sources for updates on current events. Since Virginia Tech in 2007, popular visual sharing platforms such as Instagram (2010) and Snapchat (2011) had dramatically changed the way in which these incidents are covered.

Parkland media coverage differed in one important way. Instead of honing in on the shooter and his or her motives, the bulk of coverage focused on the students and their plan to end gun violence. One observer recognized, “It has a lot to do with the fact that those kids from that school are super pissed. They’ve taken a much different activist role than we’ve seen in previous shootings” (Francis, 2018). The students and survivors of the Parkland shooting quickly realized that social media and online platforms were their best bet in having their voice heard.