2. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto Covering a Tragedy: Lessons Learned from Virginia Tech Tom Mallory, leader of breaking news at SignOnSanDiego.com, encourages disaster plan use

3. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto Statements of the obvious: Have a solid newsroom coverage plan for your most likely regional calamities Make sure everyone not only knows about it, but knows it, what they’re supposed to do Prepare your site, prepare your staff And other things you already know you should do, blah blah blah. Covering tragedies

4. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto Report like it’s not 1999 Have journalists trained in how to break news online (speed, quality and quantity, not comprehensive perfection) Ask the Internet: What are folks saying? Who were these people? Where are the documents? Covering tragedies

5. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto A jillion new sources Covering tragedies

6. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto Covering tragedies Not so obvious : What if it was your kid? How would you report the story differently? OK, now how can you build that level of compassion into your disaster coverage?

7. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto An example from one plan: Be kind and helpful. Treat disaster victims the way you would want to be treated if you were in their bloodied shoes. Offer to help them carry something. If you have information that can help them, share it. Covering tragedies

8. Oct. 18, 2007Lessons from Virginia Tech Coverage: ONA Convention, Toronto And another example: Stay out of the way. Our efforts to cover a story should never be allowed to get in the way of emergency workers’ efforts to respond to a disaster. We should never make things worse by our presence. Covering tragedies