The Tragedy That Unfolded on August 23, 2010

I was working at my family dollar store when I heard from the news from my cousin. Someone had hijacked a tour bus filled with mostly Hong Kong tourists in the Phillipines. One person on the bus was already dead. At that time my cousin was browsing a popular Hong Kong forum when the news broke out on the forum. It was mid afternoon. The incident was happening at around the same time and we were getting instant updates from the forum. The updates were from people from Hong Kong who were watching the drama unfold on their television sets. Soon we learned that the man who hijacked the bus was an ex military man and that there were approximately 25 people on the bus. A couple of hours later, we learned more about the gunman. He was an ex military man who just got fired from his post. He hijacked the bus and posted a demand on the bus window to be reinstated. 

Here's where things started to get complicated. The police arrested the gunman's brother, and this was broadcast immediately by the media. There was a live television on the bus. The gunman saw everything the media broadcasted and was enraged when he saw his brother get arrested. In the next forum update, netizens were horrified when the television reported that many gunshots were fired. Over the next few hours, we kept checking the updates and finally when we were near business closing time, we learned that the gunman had been shot by the police. Someone had uploaded a video of the police breaking into the bus and taking down the gunman. We couldn't believe our eyes. One officer was smashing the windows of the bus with his ax. There were people sitting near those windows. We couldn't believe how reckless the police were. 

This would have been a slightly different experience if I had only read about it in the newspaper. But in this case, I had access to two different mediums (the forum and the video) that amplified the effect it had on me. The forum is an example of group communication. Netizens shared news updates and reactions with each other. I've never experienced news like this before. Everything was happening at around the same time. Netizens were keeping us updated on the situation every hour. There were times of inaccurate updates though. There was one update about 9 people being dead but it turned out to be 8 dead and 1 person in critical condition. The video showing the break in really evoked the deepest feelings in me. I was totally horrified by the way the police handled it. If there wasn't a video, then this story about the police break in would have been controversial. We would just hear different versions of the same story but because there was a video, we're able to make judgments ourselves. 

The role of media, itself, in this case was questionable. Did the media impede the rescue? The media showed the image of police arresting the gunman's brother which caused the gunman to explode and fired some shots at the hostages. There should have been more communication between the police and the media. There was a television on that bus. At the same time that people at home were watching the drama unfold, so was the gunman. The media may have caused the gunman to go berserk but I feel the ultimate blame lies on the police for their inappropriate handling of the situation. 

My understanding of the event has not changed in retrospect. I still blame the police for the tragedy which could have been avoided. The following day after the unfortunate event, an anime version of the event was released. It showed what happened inside the bus as the gunman began shooting people. At the end of the event, 9 people were dead. Three of them were part of a family of four who went on vacation and in the end, only the mother survived. The tour guide and the driver were among the deceased. However, the ultimate injury was when two photos emerged online the day after the tragedy. One photo was of a group of police officers smiling and in the background was the doomed bus. The other photo was of a group of students posing happily in front of the doomed bus. Those photos caused an uproar on online forums. 

I felt like I've experienced this news first hand through the different mediums of media. 

Reference:

Hanson, Ralph. Mass communication: Living in a media world. Washington, DC.: CQ Press, 2011.