Shooting from the hip, in times of scant fact

A kind of tragic bemusement in the News Hour offices, after another shooting in an American college – this time in Illinois, leaving six dead (seven, including himself). The situation was depressingly familiar, so much so, that we wondered how long it might take for a blogger to start a morbid ‘college deathwatch’ site, keeping track of the deceased. As many bulletins were quick to point out, this was the fourth shooting in the last week, but by far and away the worst (the other three totalled three deaths, all of which came from the Baton Rouge shooting in Louisiana).

Some of the language used in the coverage was troubling. When being interviewed about the attack on Sky News – at this time, we must make clear that the death toll (minus the shooter) was still thought to be zero – the local mayor, an ex-academic, expressed that he was ‘very unhappy’ about the whole ‘unfortunate’ business. Such language seemed to understate the tragedy of the situation, but is this because we are so used to it being sensationalised and oversold? Certain words and phrases are more part of journalese than they are of the way real people speak. You only have to pick up a story regarding sex, drugs, secrets or shame to see what we mean.

There’s something to be said for straight, factual coverage, a style which isn’t typical of modern rolling news. The dilemma is this – when a big story occurs, the 24 hour, mass market channel wants to be providing coverage of the biggest story so that when the audience tunes in, they find the story they expect – but when there are only a few facts to rehash, and a shortage of interviewees, the problem with this is clear. Analysis leads into speculation via pundits and short-notice experts, and before you know it we’re six miles west of where we started, only to be brought crashing back to planet fact by a new and actual development. One could argue that this is what multiscreens are for, but how many people actually use them?

Reporting of murder does not come any straighter than the LA Times’s remarkable blog, The Homicide Report, devoted to recording the precise details of every death in the region – it’s a sobering read, and not the most envied assignment in the newsroom.