Bomb threat at U
I've been following the coverage of the bomb threat at the University, which evacuated 8 buildings, since my bus got detoured from Pleasant St. and I didn't know what was going on. I checked online as soon as I had access to a computer and sure enough, the area was closed down due to a threat. It appears that the coverage first appeared on the Minnesota Daily web site at 1:38 p.m. and has been consistently updated since then. I find that impressive since the buildings weren't even evacuated until 1:15. It is 4:30 p.m. now and the last update was at 3:40. It was interesting to see new bits of information come into the story hour by hour. Now the story has pictures and describes more of the scene than it did at first.
The first story to appear on the Star Tribune web site was an AP article which actually quoted the Daily's story. Now, the Strib has a longer article written by its own reporters up, last updated just a few minutes ago. The paper's first story came about 30 minutes after the Daily article. The Strib has changed the article a number of times. Right now it is reporting that no bombs were found. In the latest version of the story it took out comments from the students that it had in the previous versions, which is unfortunate because I think they illustrated well how students were feeling about the situation. (more annoyed and confused than worried.) The Daily's latest update also does not include any student voice, something that is unusual for that paper.
The Pioneer Press article, last updated at about 4:22 did have student and faculty comment, such as this one: At Piek Hall, "A girl in my class got a text message, raised her hand and said 'I think we're supposed to get out of class. It says something about a bomb threat,'" said Alicia Hageman, 20. "Everybody just kind of packed up and we left.", which I think added color to the story.
However, the Daily had the best photographs. The Pioneer Press had none; the Star Tribune had one of a news conference and one of a deserted Northrop Mall. But the Daily had pictures of students milling about and a police officer on a horse riding through campus.
Note how quickly news is updated. Just a moment ago I checked back on the Daily's web site and they had a seperate story about reaction to the evacuations.
I think it was really interesting to see a breaking news event happen like this and see the stories unfold online. And, of course, I'm glad everyone is okay and no bomb was found!