PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
BU Journalism Student Says Va. Shooting Won't Deter Him :: 08/28/2015
WACO (August 27, 2015) A Baylor journalism student says the deaths of a Virginia TV reporter and her photographer who were killed while live on the air won’t stop him from pursuing a career in the field.
Disgruntled former WDBJ-TV reporter Vester Flanagan shot and killed reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward during a live interview during the station’s morning show on Wednesday.
Flanagan later killed himself.
The woman whom Parker was interviewing was also shot, but is expected to recover.
"It's always terrifying when lives are lost especially in the field of journalism because that is something that I'm looking into and that I want to go into myself," Baylor University student Danny Guerra said.
Guerra is a sophomore who’s studying public relations.
He recalled talking about the shooting in class.
"One of the topics that was brought up was definitely we become inured to the horrors that happen sometimes because you get shown on the media so much and something that struck me is that this is a big deal right now but within a week or two it's just going to pass and that's definitely something I don't think should happen and it's very unfortunate that it does," he said.
Guerra said he thinks a lesson on self-defense should be offered in a journalism class.
"I definitely do feel journalism majors should take a course that just warns of the hazards and tells them what to do in these situations so that they should be better equipped so that a situation like this comes up," he said.
"And I think that if I was a reporter I would make it my point to help the safety and help educate against gun abuse in that way. Typically, guns don't kill people, people kill people, and that is true. The gun simply facilitates the act. My opinion on this is it's not so much a gun issue it's a cultural issue," he continued.
Dr. Mia Moody-Ramirez is an associate professor in Baylor's Journalism Department.
She said she talked to students about the role social media played in the shooting.
"People said he was still alive, some people said he's dead, some people debated because it was still happening. In social media the stories change, people posted information about the fax that he sent. So that's where we saw these stories change that's where we receive this information that was incorrect," she said.
Moody-Ramirez said safety is important but she doesn't believe Wednesday's shooting discourages students about a future journalism career.
"I don't think it's going to change your mind. I think most journalists if you want to become one are still going to become a journalist. I know for me it would not change my mind, she said.
