An NBC producer takes a call from New York while talking to broadcasting students. (Photo by Jennifer King)

by Ben Romano, undergradute student

Editor's note: The following is from a letter Romano wrote to his reporting professor Dean Rea.

I had the best education given to me one Friday, and I got paid for it at the same time.

I was working in the Emerald on Thursday afternoon when our editor got a call from The New York Times. the Times needed a stringer. I wasn't familiar with that term at the time, but I knew that if the Times was calling and they needed something, I would be the one to give it to them. So as soon as Sara hung up the phone I begged her to let me be the stringer. She agreed and after about four hours of diligent phone calling I finally reached James Brooke, Denver bureau chief and one of seven NYT staffers in Springfield.

He hired me Thursday at 11 p.m. I reported to the Red Lion at 8 a.m. Brooke explained he was writing a "mood of the city" piece and he wanted me to help him ascertain exactly what the mood was. That meant going out to the high school and talking with people. It was hard work at first, I felt intrusive when I asked a crying high school girl: "Why did this happen here?" I really started to get into it and with some coaching from Brooke I think I learned quite a bit.

"It was the greatest day my young career had ever seen."

I worked until about 2 p.m. gathering various bits of info. I returned to his hotel at about three and entered my notes in his laptop. The story I worked on is on page A8 of Saturday's New York Times. There is no reference to me. I wasn't expecting one.

I went home for two hours and got some rest. I was scheduled to meet with another reporter at 5 p.m. When I arrived at the Shilo Inn in Springfield, Frank Bruni was transcribing notes and working very hard with another veteran NYT reporter. Her name was Shannon--I can't remember her last name right now-- but she said she had been with the Times for 23 years.

I sat and watched these two professionals work and it was absolutely amazing. They were so efficient in their communication as they raced against a deadline that had a three-time-zone head start. That was a treat.

Bruni asked me to cover the first prayer vigil, held under the Springfield City Hall. I went with Shannon, the veteran, and on the way there we had a great conversation about media ethics and some underhanded things reporters can do to get stories. We had heard about people dressing as doctors and trying to sneak into area hospitals.

We covered the vigil and returned to the Shilo. I was learning the whole way. Then we dictated our notes to Bruni, who had been joined by a younger woman named Nina. I think she was officially a stringer also, but she said she worked for The San Francisco Chronicle.

While at the vigil I interviewed a couple of Thurston kids. I discovered two new leads that no one on the entire NYT news team of eight had found yet. First, I found out that Kip was very into Kempo Karate and that he had been taking lessons at studio on 40th and Main. The second thing I found out dealt with the condition of one of the victims. The mother of one of the kids I talked to works at Sacred Heart and she had told her son that one of the victims, Teresa Miltonberger, was barely alive, on life support in fact. He said hospital staff were just waiting for her mother, who was back East attending to the death of Theresa's grandpa, to return home so they can pull the plug. (Note: Teresa Miltonberger had been upgraded to fair condition as of July 16.)

Photographer Paul Carter, far right, of The Register-Guard and adjunct professor John Bauguess, second from right, talk to students about the newspaper's coverage of the Thurston tragedy. (Photo by Jack Liu)

We entered this in as a memo and emailed it to the national desk. They complimented me on my info gathering and then they were surprised to hear I was only a sophomore; they thought I was a grad student.

With our work finished for the evening, Frank, Shannon, Nina and I decided that the Times owed us a nice dinner. They asked me a good place to eat around there and I suggested we go to Oregon Electric Station. So there I was, sipping a beer and enjoying a beautiful piece of Copper River Salmon with three top-notch journalists.

The Times paid for everything. We ate leisurely. I got to know them in a personal way, which was great because they told me about what they thought it took to make it in this business and how each of them had made it. It was without a doubt the best meal I have ever had.

We all exchanged email addresses. Bruni gave me his home phone number and said call anytime with any questions I might have. It was such a great connection to make. He also said that he passed my info on to the national desk with his endorsement. He told me not to be surprised if The New York Times calls me again.

These people are masters of our art. Bruni's use of language captivated me, even in the memos he wrote. And to watch how a major newspaper sets up all the logistical things involved with covering such a major story--"What are our blind spots?" they kept asking each other. I must have done something right to deserve this. It was the greatest day my young career had ever seen.

Emerald editor questions role

by Sarah Kickler, Emerald Editor in Chief

It seemed like things were winding down. There were 11 issues left of the Emerald for spring term that Thursday, and we were beginning to feel like the year was easing to a close.

And then all hell broke loose. The radio stations started reporting shots fired at Thurston High School, possible fatalities and many injured. On my way to the office, I started wondering how on earth we were going to cover this and how we could do it appropriately. My mind was swimming.

Why would someone do something like that, and why did it keep happening over and over again? Within the past few months, it seemed like a couple of magazine covers a month were telling of the Southern gun culture and kids screaming for attention.

But attention is exactly what the kids were getting. Think about it. What message have the media been sending to kids with the coverage of these previous incidents? We're telling kids that if you feel like you have some problems and you are being ignored, pull out a gun and mow some of your schoolmates down and we will give you more attention than you've ever dreamed of. We'll splash your faces on the cover of Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report and analyze the hell out of you. We'll find answers to your every problem. Maybe there were too many guns in the house. Maybe you needed counseling. Maybe there weren't enough resources at your school.

But what answer never comes up? No one ever says, "Maybe the kid saw all the coverage we gave the last gun-toting kid and thought, 'Hey, I could do that.' " Or maybe people do say that, and the media ignore it, thinking, "We don't have that much of an effect; we're just telling people what happened."

I'm not laying the blame for Kip Kinkel's alleged actions on the media or anyone else; I don't think we will ever know what the catalyst was. I'm just suggesting that we might want to put a little more thought into the possible ramifications of coverage. People are more affected by media images than we assume, and I think we have entered a huge web of catch-22s.

More kids have been shooting classmates in school, and the media have covered each of these events. But what if the media coverage has been causing some of these events? Then have the media been covering or creating the news?

Many people in the newsroom complained about TV news coverage of the Thurston shooting. We watched as reporters cornered students and asked them if anything like this had ever happened to them before, and we complained that the students needed some more time to process what had happened before talking about it on live TV. And then we would complain when the reporters ran out of people to talk to and returned to regularly scheduled programming. I don't know what we wanted the TV people to do, but we certainly wanted more information.

One of the worst situations to develop was that in the midst of one of the most tragic events to hit our community, the Emerald was bombarded by national media with requests for information, stringers and photos. We fielded calls from The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The London Times, Reuters, Newsweek and The Associated Press. We ended up with an almost excited atmosphere, but that was at the expense of the tragedy at Thurston, and it felt horrible.

All I want to know is whether this is really what journalism is all about. Because if getting photos of people with obvious injuries and quotes from people who are so grief-stricken they don't know what they are saying is what this business is really all about, maybe I chose the wrong path.

Reprinted with permission from the Oregon Daily Emerald.