By: Jenna Perrino, Lauren Sharkey, Jeff Chase, and Melissa Rubio
When you want to revisit a past event what site immediately comes to mind? Youtube. At any given time, and for whatever reason, youtube.com provides the public with a never-ending virtual world of footage, clippings, information, and much more. When my group typed in “Boston”, the site automatically filled in the words “marathon bombing” on April 15th, 2013. Whenever there is a tragedy, such as the incident in Boston a few days ago, it is not uncommon for the youtube videos to be streaming constantly on computers, smartphones, and televisions. However, we found that most, if not all, links were from the newscasters present at the time of the bombing. (Lauren Sharkey)
ABC news interrupted the programming that was going on at the time to bring the “special reporting”. They gave a brief description of what was going on. Something that I noticed was that within the first minute went to correspondent with justice as to who might be behind this. It seems to be important to know what the government is doing to figure out what is going on and who is behind it. The entire video is made up of aerial images of the bombing site and on the scene of people who are injured. There is no interview with people in the bombing or any witnesses. The comments on the video seem like a back and forth between those who say the government doesn’t know what they’re doing and that Islam is to blame. When one person goes off and blames Islam, another comes around that says “Don’t Blame Islam!” Another thing was people were saying was that it was a conspiracy because at once scene there is a red flag or what some think is “blood” and then within a couple of seconds, that blood is gone. So many people are saying that ABC news is altering the “live” coverage of the bombing. But something that was all around said was that they felt sick that someone out there was enjoying all of this and that all this coverage is just feeding their “entertainment”. (Melissa Rubio)
For Al Jazeera English, the reporter interviews someone who describes the aftermath of the Boston Marathon explosions. The reporter interviewed a man who came to watch his daughter run in the marathon, who described the scene and all the commotion that happened. He said when the first bomb went off people ran in the opposite direction but then as soon as the second one went off they ran back the other way. He ran to the scene because he was a surgeon and he wanted to help. He even compared it to an IED in Afghanistan. He said that he saw a man with half his leg blown off, another with a foot blown off and he said the worst one was a mother who was holding a little boy who had died in the explosion. In the comments section for this video, many have been flagged as spam or removed. In this section, many people blame Islam, saying that it is another terrorist attack like 9/11. They say that any Arabs are just as responsible as the ones who planted the bombs. They call them sick and they should not be allowed in to country. (Melissa Rubio)
Besides news reports found on YouTube about the incident, there are reaction videos as well. Many celebrities such as Mark Whalberg, 50 Cent, and Donald Trump expressed their feeling and prayers in regards to the Boston Marathon bombing. Several times they touched on the lives that have been affected and curiously question why such terrible events have been happening the way they do. One celebrity spoke upon living in Boston and watching the chaos happen in the same city he lived in was disturbing. He also spoke upon the finish line as being an accomplishment, the people of the city couldn’t celebrate instead they were running for their lives. The use of YouTube and getting Celebrities to react about the Boston Marathon bombing is very important. Its important because celebrities are the ones who are most looked up to by the public eye. It allows for people to relate and understand where they are coming from. (Jeff Chase)
So how else does the public keep themselves updated 24/7 with events occurring at the exact moment it happens? Facebook. Here we found a variety of YouTube links from or about the bombing posted, “liked”, and shared throughout the realm of the popular social media site. Some were of the event itself, while others expressed what government officials, including the president, had to say about the event. Similar to the comments seen throughout YouTube, these “sharings” brought major controversy to the website. Friends, family, followers and complete strangers were seen voicing their opinions on the matter, which usually resulted in some sort of heated debate. Although having these videos in your newsfeed is extremely convenient, it seems to have brought more conflict and fighting than anything else. (Lauren Sharkey)
Besides Facebook, CNN news and Twitter have embedded videos from YouTube to help spread information about the Boston Marathon explosion. CNN news posted a story about the Richard Family. They have a YouTube video and a written summary of what is stated in the video under. It gives information about the 8-year-old boy who died, his mother with brain damage, and his 6-year-old sister who lost her leg during the explosion. This story is extremely moving and the video helps to make their story more real and powerful. Instead of just reading words on a screen there is a visual of a man speaking who knew the family and expressed what a wonderful group they are. He then states how he is deeply saddened by the situation. As he speaks, they show pictures of the family and the 8-year-old boy who passed. (Jenna Perrino)
Another site that uses videos embedded from YouTube is Twitter. Twitter lets a person post statues, pictures, and videos. On many different Twitter accounts people have shared YouTube videos from the incident. One account, @MatthewKeys, tweeted “close video of first Boston Marathon explosion” and attached a video of a person taping the race and their experience in the moment of the explosion. The video helps express the true fear and chaos around the area and without the video one may not truly understand what it was like to live that moment. He found this video on YouTube and shared it. Youtube is a useful, powerful, and a needed source when spreading the news of the Boston marathon explosions. (Jenna Perrino)
Bank of Opinions 