By
Bob SteeleNelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values
It's always fascinating to me to see which news stories generate significant public reaction and how that reaction plays out. Often the journalism and the response create what I would call a real-time morality play. Here's a good example to consider.
The Columbus Dispatch recently published a three-part series called an
"Interrupted Life" that chronicles how teenager "Rachel Barezinsky survived a 'ghost-hunting' shooting, and how it changed her life."
As the
Disptach's timeline account reported, on "August 22, 2006, Allen S. Davis fires a .22 caliber rifle at a car outside his Worthington home, hitting Rachel Barezinsky. She and four fellow seniors from Thomas Worthington High School had driven to the house they considered haunted to amuse themselves."
I learned of this story when a
Dispatch reporter called me for comments about how to explain the considerable public reaction to a newspaper story of this nature. That article is headlined,
"Public debates who is victim," and it starts out, "The story of a shooting and its toll on two lives has provoked emotional reactions from observers who feel they have a stake in the tragedy."
I went to the
Dispatch's Web site and noted that over two hundred comments had been posted to the stories within a couple days of their publication. I also learned there has been a great deal of discussion on Columbus radio stations about this case and its consequences.
When the
Dispatch interviewed me, I said news reporting could exponentially magnify the public interest that already exists with a story of this nature. "It is not only a story of tragedy," I said, "It is in many ways, a morality play that takes place in real time, with real people, in a real community."
I suggested that the story of Rachel Barezinsky and Allen Davis tells us a great deal about what goes on in many communities around the country when there is tension between people. In this case, it's a story that relates profound consequences when tension turns to tragedy.
The Dispatch's story includes the perspective of Columbus psychologist Craig Travis, who believes, "people are trying to make sense of a scary world in which such a thing could happen." Travis said, "One person has to be responsible for it. It simplifies it for people. ... If we can put the blame on one person, then basically we can put it to bed and get on with our lives."
I'm intrigued by what
The Columbus Dispatch has reported on this case involving Rachel Barezinsky's injury and recovery as well as the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of Allen Davis.
You can learn more about why and how the Dispatch reported and published this series of stories by reading
a column by editor Ben Marrison.
And I urge you to take a little time and read some of the
Dispatch stories and also to read some of the comments from the public.
As I told the
Dispatch, the story "has an immediacy and a presence and a weight that can be very different than a story about a war halfway around the world or a debate about the budget in Washington."
