Keep it Classy Milledgeville

It is not everyday that national breaking news hits a small town, and as a Mass Communication major I have found it to be more of a learning opportunity.  

I have taken away two things from this recent 'crisis' that occurred in my college town and that is 1) reporters will do almost anything to get information and 2) the news will never be 100% unbiased. 

Reporters of all media types flocked to my small college and basically went to great lengths to get information.  When I say great lengths I mean they were almost pathetic looking as they  bought meals for students, followed them around, called them to the point of harassment etc.  Is this really how the information on the major television and newspaper news sources is found?  At what point do reporters give up and move on?  At what point is the story worth less then the bribe?  

I do not hold the answers, but I do know as student wanting to go into a field where I will be working with reporters and news sources, this definitely has opened my eyes to the reality of of the news world and how crisis news stories are handled.   

The truth is biased to the eye of the beholder (or reporter).  One day after the 'crisis' our town has been painted with a bad reputation.  This could have happened anywhere, yet the media has taken isolated occurrences to the extreme in terms of describing the 'true Milledgeville.'  GCSU has not escaped from the media reputation storm either.  

Being on the other side of the story and hearing what actually makes the cut to the public is very interesting to me.  It has shown me that the media can curve any story to make it fit into the 'newsworthy' category.  (Milledgeville is not just a 'party school with a Piggly Wiggly that sells beer kegs'). 

As a public relations student this event has taught me to edit and control the amount of information that the news media receives.  Also on a side note the first thing that everyone should do when in a crisis is to remain calm, so you can think through the problem clearly.  The quicker you loss your cool the easier it is to be manipulated and attract more unwanted attention.  

I hope that people will take them to realize that Milledgeville and GCSU have class, history, and culture (more then what is getting credited for in the media).  Also realize that what you hear and read you have to take with a grain of salt in terms of the percentage of truth that you are receiving. 

As a side note through this crisis I have lost respect for a certain news media considering their glaring AP style errors (that I would have gotten counted off for as a student) and lack of research they put into their story.