DOMO June 2013 pdf - Ringier

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mediathon
Information is becoming
soap opera
When the whole world is talking about it, when one
headline prevails and people are moved by pictures
and human-interest stories: that is what’s called a
Mediathon, the drama that no one can get enough of
– neither the public nor the media.
Text: Peter Hossli. Photos: Sherwin MGehee/ Getty Images Creative, Ben Thorndike/AP Photo/ Keystone
The first bomb blew up at 2.49 p.m.
near the finish line of the Boston
Marathon. Another bang came fourteen
seconds later: A second explosive
device, hidden inside a pressure
cooker, detonated. Three people
died, around 260 were injured, some
severely, suffering the loss of limbs.
Within minutes after the explosions
on April 15, Twitter spread the first
reports about the attack. Pictures
went online. Initially American websites
headlined «breaking news», but
the global media were quick to follow.
News tickers spread everything
that was known – regardless of
whether it was true. Soon, U.S. news
broadcasters had set up live feeds on
site. From that moment forward,
CNN, Fox News and MSNBC as well
Casualties, smoke
and devastation
on the corner
of Boylston and
Exeter – near the
finish line of the
Boston Marathon,
the oldest city
marathon in the
world.
as local stations reported non-stop
about the Boston bombings; so did
news portals on the Internet and
newspapers. Time magazine printed
a special edition. During the subsequent
few weeks the explosions
seemed to be the only story in the
media, not only in the United States
but in many places around the world.
At first, journalists pondered over
suspects, then over motives. They
depicted the hunt for the alleged
perpetrators as a dramatic spectacle
– broadcast live into cozy living
rooms and onto cellphones. One of
the suspects died and police caught
the other. The Boston bombers remained
ubiquitous for another week,
until they disappeared from the airwaves
– and from the public consciousness.
Thus ended what the
German weekly Der Spiegel had a
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