On April 16th, 2007 between 7:15 am and 9:50am, a massacre took place on the campus of “Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States”. First shooting occurred at West Amber Johnston hall, which killed 2 students. Between attacks, Seung Hui Cho sent a video package to NBC News. Approximately two hours later, a 2nd attack occurred at the Norris hall. This took lives of 30 people, and 25 were wounded. After the shooting, Seung Hui Cho committed suicide. Virginia Tech massacre became one of the worst tragedies of murder on college students. We are not sure about his motivation but the police found a note in his room. It said, “You caused me to do this”. During the investigation, the police discovered few more information about Seung Hui Cho. They found out that he previously had mental health treatments. Also, “fellow students described Cho as a quiet person who would not respond if someone greeted him.” He had no socializing skills in his life.
New media played an important role in spreading this murder tragedy. When the massacre took place between 7:15 am to 9:50am, new media such as Twitter and Wikipedia were kept updated from students of Virginia Tech University. Students used their cell phones to take videos and photographs and shared to the public about what was going on in the campus. In Twitter, people posted statuses such as, “Gun shots reported coliseum parking lot stay inside” and “Secure doors emergency personnel responding call 911 for help”. People updated their twitters every minute with new pictures and reports. In Wikipedia, pages were also created for each victims and the shooter in order to keep an Encyclopedia layout. There were 2075 editors who took on roles as editors or spell checkers without anyone supervising or organizing it. During first two days after the incident, there were 750000 visits on Wikipedia, which equals to 4 visits per second. This shows the power of new media. However, this can have a negative effect on family members of the victims who would not want to know how their child got killed.
South Koreans were shocked and shameful when the citizenship of the shooter was identified as South Korea. President of South Korea Roh Moo-Hyun expressed his deepest sympathy. Even though Seung Hui Cho came to the US as a 10 years old boy and also a permanent resident of the US, a lot of South Koreans felt guilty, sorrowful, and apologetic to the world because they considered him as South Korean by blood. South Korean living in the US feared that there might be another reprisal attack.
What I think of Virginia tech massacre is that it should not happen again at any place around the world. Also, we should take care of people who might have similar personality of Seung Hui Cho. We need to approach to them first and handle them with care and friendliness. We should also talk with them about their difficulties in their lives and find out ways to help them.