The Right to Know About Violent Images?: The Virginia Tech Killer's Gun Points at the Viewer.

On April 18, 2007, two days after the tragedy termed the Virginia Tech Massacre, NBC revealed that Virginia Tech's shooting gunman, Seung Hui Cho, had sent them a package containing photographs, personal writings and a self made video - a "multimedia manifesto." After NBC's originally airing, quickly the image of Cho holding guns was being seen everywhere as Cho's own his words appeared on TV and online. What followed was a heated debate over journalistic ethics and the fine line between news and sensationalism. When the media confronts ethical issues regarding the showing of violent or indecent images, the media persists in claiming that the public has a right to know and their responsibility is to serve the public with this right. Traditionally the right to know has played an important role for "free press" on the grounds that if people know what is going on in the world they will be better informed and work to improve society. However, the right to know concept has often been confronted with questions such as: What should the public know? Who should decide what the public is to know? Are the media showing what the public needs to know?This paper examines the media's role in the public's right to know issue in the context of American court decisions. This paper also offers an analysis of visual images which appeared in print in the front pages of the U.S. newspapers the day after NBC released the Cho multimedia manifesto. For this visual analysis this presentation will utilize some categorical typologies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]