Student reactions to media mixed
Katie Jones
Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: VA Tech
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Blacksburg, Va. - Some 350 registered media outlets have swarmed the Virginia Tech campus and the town of Blacksburg, according to Chris Clough, director of marketing and strategic communications.
Some Virginia Tech students have expressed their sentiment toward the media through hand-made signs reading "Virginia Tech stay strong, media stay away."
Others are less resistant to the media's presence.
Quin Costin, a second-year chemical engineering student at Virginia Tech, felt the media presence serves as a positive reminder.
"Some of us are particularly uncomfortable with the way the media pounced on it last year and treated it as nothing more than a story," he said. "However, I think that the media presence this year and the media presence here today is an important reminder to the world that the shootings here did happen. People need to remember what happened at Virginia Tech in order for some good to come of this. It's important when a tragedy occurs … something good does come out of it."
Costin said the media's presence on campus does not lessen the commemoration.
"This day reopens old wounds," Costin said. "Just today, I was walking across Drillfield with a friend and we said to each other 'this is unreal.' That's the only word that can describe the situation. It's absolutely unreal that it happened a year ago."
Maya Renfro, a second-year art student, compared the continual media presence to "picking at a scab."
"Eventually, you have a scar and you're just gouging at it," she said. "It's counterproductive. You can't go around reflecting the whole time."
Renfro said she felt the media tends to over-dramatize the situation.
"If there's 100people that say it's OK and one person that says 'It's terrible and I can't go on,' they're going to capitalize on that," Renfro said.
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