While Poynter Online is a resource for journalists, it is also a good resource for bloggers struggling to post fast breaking and tragic events.

While every point may have some flexibility for bloggers (and particularly for the thousands of Virgina Tech community who poured online to connect up) take what you will. These guidelines are especially important for those of us away from the carnage and desire to keep people from all walks of life and similar experiences informed.

Poynters Bob Steele:

Eyewitnesses – verify identities of those who contact you to talk about what they saw or heard. Don’t get snookered by someone who pretends to have been there. Verify the authenticity and legitimacy of eyewitness accounts before you use them.

Anyone can be fooled, a website on Drudge turned out to be fake.

Video/Pictures/Sound from Eyewitnesses – This content is NOT being gathered by journalists. They are eyewitnesses or participants in the story. The content they offer may be authentic, but journalists have an obligation to verify that authenticity before using it online, on the air or in the paper.

Rumors – Don’t report them as fact. Dispel falsehoods. Report the truth even if it requires you to go slower in reporting pieces of information.

One rumour was that 19 year old  Emily Jane Hilscher from Woodsville VA a freshman majoring in animal and poultry sciences, was a girlfriend of shooter Cho Seung.

Speed and Accuracy — Keep asking yourself two key questions: What does our audience need? And when do they need it? Don’t force a story online or on the air without a clear journalistic purpose and without proper vetting.

I made that error, in a need for speed I posted the killer (who had not yet been named) was from China. Those who paid to cover face even greater pressures.

Comments Sections on Web Sites – If there were ever a time for monitoring the content before it goes online, this is such a case. Encourage spirited, meaningful discussion. But don’t allow personal attacks, mean-spirited rants and vile content. Don’t allow rumors to run rampant. If your feedback section is not set up to monitor prior to publication, be sure to read behind on postings as soon as possible after they’re published.

This is mostly for news publications, but applies to all of us. I moderate comments, but I have seen blogs (WorldMagazine comes to mind) where some commenters went over the top. I am my own code of conduct, and each blog has decisions to make about how far commenters can go. If comments start getting out of control on a blog, leave. There are so many hundreds of others that provide safe and respectful places of trusts to comment on.

Poynter Online Al Tompkins: Students Tell Va. Tech Story Through Cell Video, Blogs, Forums Resources for covering the shooting.

Earl Hutchinson: For the Korean US community

…Cho’s name, and though seldom stated publicly, whispered by many privately, that he was a Korean non-citizen, and an immigrant. This fact will be indelibly imprinted in the public record and perhaps the public mind for years to come.
The maniacal act of one man is a terrible, and unfair burden to dump on any group. And Korean officials repeatedly made the point that it was the monstrous act of one man. There is and should not be collective responsibility or collective guilt for that. Koreans will grieve for the dead and the injured at Virginia Tech and continue to offer their condolences and prayers to their families, just as other Americans have done in the hours and days after the killings.
In the end Cho Seung Hui was not “an Asian man.” He was a man who committed a grotesque act.