Aurora, Colorado Movie Theater Shooting - Assignment Example

As such, this brief analysis will consider the means whereby a litany of reporters and news agencies have dealt with the situation, the way in which the police and prosecutors have responded to this, and the harmful precedent that this has set for the world of journalism and the furtherance of the trade. Firstly, though the veritable firestorm of media activity surrounding this particular case has somewhat subsided recently, the press ravenously sought to find any and all relevant, juicy, or pertinent information with regard to the case in the early stages after the violence took place.

This was primarily accomplished by seeking to engage individuals that experienced the violence firsthand or had lost friends or family in the massacre in the theater. Initial eyewitness reports that were gained by several news outlets sought to portray a situation where a type of coordinated attack involving two or more individuals was something that could likely have happened based upon eye-witness testimony. However, as key instances of the case were better understood, the media began to more appropriately list the real perpetrator as a lone-wolf acting alone.

Moreover, as time has gone on and the trial has been set for Holmes, little if any media attention has taken place. Although it is the expectation of this student that this will change when a verdict nears in the case, such an action may very well be indicative of a press that operates on the very edge and can afford no more than a brief coverage of an event until the viewership/readership is bored and ready for the next story. However, due to the fact that as yet no verdict has been proclaimed by the court, overall coverage of the issue itself has abated and the viewpoints expressed have tended to mirror what was originally discussed once the details of the case were clearer.

Secondly, with regard to the sheer shock that the shooting engendered within the nation, it is not a surprise that the media instantly sought to gain access to the information surrounding the events that led up to and culminated in the massacre at the theater in Aurora. However, what was particularly shocking was the sheer persistency with which the media sought to engage those individuals who had experienced the shooting and survived as well as those individuals who had lost family members in the shooting (Ingold 1).

Since the very beginning of investigative journalism there has been the thin line between getting the story and respecting the rights of a traumatized individual; however, these rights were egregiously ignored in the case of the Aurora shooting interview and subsequent attempts to glean information from the ultimate shareholders. This was so much the case that the police and prosecution were forced into the public arena to announce that the actions that were being undertaken by various media representatives and their reporters were unethical at best and downright harmful to the furtherance of the investigation at worst.

Although there was and is no criminal code, other than harassment and filing an restraining order, with regard to keeping an overzealous reporter at bay, the problem that many of these shareholders faced