SUMMER 2013
Adviser Update
Journalism matters
Page 11A
The value and power of social media became evident
in the coverage of the shooting of a former student
By Steve hanf
N
Read Tatter’s story here:
http://www.pinewhispers.
com/2013/01/08/daniellejameison-improves-aftershooting-friends-rally-behind2011-grad/
black
P01.V52.I4
See JOURNALISM MATTERS on
page 12A
Steve Hanf graduated
from the University of Illinois
School of Journalism and
worked as a sportswriter at
various daily newspapers
for 13 years. He started
his teaching career at R.J.
Reynolds HS in 2010 and
began advising the school
paper last year. He can be
reached at smhanf@wsfcs.
k12.nc.us.
cyan
people at Reynolds still
shared of her.
On Twitter, that story got 13
re-tweets. It got seven likes on
Facebook. Our website had
more than 100 hits in that hour
leading up to midnight per
Google Analytics.
Then came the tidal wave.
Wednesday morning,
the news editor of the
News & Record sent me
a note thanking us for our
cooperation and mentioning
this little tidbit: A story on
its website talking about
Danielle’s condition being
upgraded mentioned how
fondly her high school
remembered her — and linked
to our website.
“According to her high
school newspaper, Pine
Whispers, she is recovering
and receiving visitors in the
hospital. Read more in this
piece by student journalist
James Tatter.”
That day, PineWhispers.
com received 958 visits — 916
of them “unique.” The next
day saw 337 unique visitors
hit the site. In this first year
of being online, our previous
high total of 158 hits had come
during Homecoming Spirit
Week when we posted “Hippie
Day” photos. Further, the
Facebook post reporting that
Tuesday night story ended up
being seen by 652 people and
shared by scores of them.
The lesson in all of this was
so simple, yet so powerful.
What we do as scholastic
media students and advisers
does matter.
We might not realize it when
we are snapping that 50th
Senior Superlative photo in
magenta
class that day included a
sophomore who volunteered
to write the story for our
website. He had an indoor
track meet that night, which
meant he would be seeing
athletes and coaches
who knew Jameison. At
the meet, he snapped an
iPhone photo of teammates
donning purple ribbons as a
show of “domestic violence
awareness” and shared
it with our followers on
Twitter. On Facebook, we
reported Jameison was still
hospitalized and a full story
on the RJR reaction was to
follow.
At 10:30, reporter James
Tatter delivered the story to
my inbox. Beautifully written,
filled with great quotes, it
needed only minor edits
before being posted on our
website at 10:55. The only
thing I added to the story
came from the News &
Record again — police had
announced at an evening
press conference that the
shooter was the mother.
Following an argument that
morning with her long-time
boyfriend, she got a gun, shot
and killed her 14-year-old
son, shot and wounded her
18-year-old daughter, shot
and wounded the boyfriend,
and then killed herself. The
newspaper shared the press
release with us. While it added
a great deal of authority
and breaking news to the
overall story, I added a brief
paragraph on those details
to Tatter’s story near the lead
and then focused on the tragic
details toward the end.
The story, after all, was
supposed to be about Danielle
— who was improving — and
the many fond memories
yellow
ews reports from the
neighboring city that
Monday morning
were tragic, yet not terribly
noteworthy from 25 miles
away: two dead, two wounded
in a domestic violence
incident.
The earth-shattering news
came 10 hours later. The
18-year-old clinging to life
following the shooting was a
recent graduate of our high
school.
What transpired over
the next 48 hours in terms
of news coverage proved
unquestioningly the value of
scholastic media, the power
of social media and one
unrelenting fact that repeated
itself unendingly in our heads:
Journalism matters.
Newspapers matter.
Yearbooks matter.
Danielle Jameison
graduated from R.J. Reynolds
HS in 2011. She starred
on the track team and was
voted “Most Intelligent” by
her classmates in the Black
& Gold yearbook’s Senior
Superlatives.
Less than two years into her
college career at UNC-Chapel
Hill, however, Jameison
was in critical condition in a
hospital in Gre [