Should Journalists Reveal The Name of The Suicidal Student?

On Sunday, a student barricaded himself in his off-campus home. Police believed him to be suicidal.

Because weapons were involved - the student had a gun and fired several rounds, the area surrounding the home was cleared. Students and full-time residents had to leave their homes and were not allowed to return until after 2:00 a.m. Monday morning.

The student was taken to a hospital to be checked out. No charges were immediately filed.

Should journalists publish or air the student's name?

Do the people have a right to know? Shouldn't we know who among us has a weapon and has threatened to use it? Shouldn't we know who caused dozens of area people to be scared and discomforted?

Or should we err on the side of caution? The young man, apparently, is unstable. His was a personal situation and we could further traumatize him. And there is not a huge value in the public knowing after the fact.

What would you do?

Real Life vs. Fiction. Journalism vs. Marketing.

In a fragmented media world, where everyone has a gazillion options for where to get information/entertainment/whatever, journalists are desperate to draw in an audience.

A local news anchor tweeted the note above, referencing Breaking Bad, the popular cable program that sometimes airs during the same time slot as her newscast.

Is her correlation to the fictional show in bad taste or smart marketing?

Should Journalists Make The Alleged Bigots' Statements Public?

A pair of local school officials are in the news because they allegedly had text conversations that were racist and sexually charged.

When you watch the report above or if you read about the story in most outlets, you will not learn what the two allegedly said beyond the n-word. The transcriptions of the texts have been published in a few less-mainstream outlets.

Should news organizations present the full transcripts or should journalists apply moral standards and not allow such language or behavior go public?

I'm a Hero. News at 11.

A reporter in Phoenix was covering a story about flooding when he and the cameraman stumbled across a woman screaming for help.

So the reporter helped her. And the cameraman shot the rescue. Then they aired that on the news.

Did the reporter do something heroic and thus become newsworthy? Or is he simply casting himself as a hero by airing his good deed?

If you had rescued that person, would you have broadcast it?

Is It Acceptable For a Journalist to Wear a Grape Suit?

A high school student was suspended after running onto a football field during a game - while wearing a banana costume.

A journalist wore a grape suit costume when reporting the story.

Is the reporter out of line? Or is he just mocking the severity of the young man's punishment?

Would You Do This For Your Job?

This is the news crew at KUTV, the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Is this a good promo for their newscasts? Or is this not how good journalists should behave/be represented?

Does it diminish their credibility or make you want to watch them even more?

Seriously: Is Miley Cyrus Newsworthy?

So, Miley Cyrus performed at MTV's Video Music Awards and then the Internet went wild. During her performance, there were more than 300,000 tweets per minute about her. In total, there were more than 4.5 million mentions of her on twitter (and counting).

Ever since the show was aired, people have been opining about her actions on websites, on television, on the radio, in newspapers and everywhere else.

Because there was such a strong reaction, does that make the situation newsworthy? Is there a legitimate news story about her performance?

Or are the media capitalizing on the public reaction and exploiting it to boost their readership/viewership?