%0 Journal Article %T Media and Society Exam (June 2007) %A Gina Schreuder %J Global Media Journal : African Edition %D 2011 %I Stellenbosch University %R 10.5789/1-1-49 %X Broadcasting a killer: The Virginia Tech shooting and the effects of mass communication. When the rampant killer responsible for the shootings at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, Cho Seung-Hui, sent a package containing about 1800 words of text, several Quicktime home videos and 43 photos to the news-network giant NBC on the day of the shooting, 16 April 2007, a debate was immediately sparked in the global media about whether it should have been aired or not. NBC coined the term ¡°multimedia manifesto¡± to describe Cho¡¯s riveting and macabre ranting on film, which was immediately shown to millions around the globe. The network aired the footage, promting TIME magazine to muse that the ¡°technology for recording horror has advanced, even if the technology for inflicting it has not...Cho¡¯s final testament was like a deranged MySpace parody¡± (Poniewozik, 2007). The package shows Cho brandishing hammers? and guns in defiant poses and the text reveals much about the young killer¡¯s state of mind. NBC president %U http://globalmedia.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/49