As Monday’s tragic events began to unfold at Virginia Tech, students and staff scrambled for cell phones and computers struggling to gain more information and to share their experiences with the rest of the world. The TV coverage of the shootings on the VT campus included–almost immediately–pictures and video captured by students on their cell phones. The cell phone video that aired in an almost constant loop on news networks has become a new symbol of the citizen journalism movement, a trend in media that relies more heavily upon the public to capture breaking news as it happens. Students weren’t just using the camera capabilities of their phones to spread the news; text messaging also played a large role in the unfolding events. As rumors about the shootings circulated, students warned friends to stay off campus and to check their e-mail while others texted friends to let them know they were safe.

One student interviewed late Monday told about her locked-down media writing class writing news stories about the shooting and uploading them to the internet while chaos ensued around them. As the media descended upon Blacksburg, the web site of the Collegiate Times, the student newspaper, was inundated to the point of collapse by people seeking more information. After the site crashed, Times reporters started a blog to keep the information flowing. Blogs on LiveJournal, Vox, and MTV.com captured the unfettered voices of students searching for answers in the wake of the shooting.

Over the course of the next few days, the activity spilled over to social networking sites like Facebook where groups of thousands of students expressed their grief and mourning on pages created as a tribute to the victims. The group “I’m OK at VT” that began as a way for students to let distant friends know they were safe eventually became a massive memorial to those who weren’t “OK.” (More about I'm OK at VT here.) Hundreds of such memorial groups materialized, allowing students to share their grief and inform each other of memorial events. The largest group had over 116,000 members at last count.

As a fifth grader living in Littleton, Colorado, I can vividly remember my own experience with tragedy. The shooting that occurred at Columbine High School eight years ago today and the ensuing barrage of news coverage are distinct memories for me. I can remember sitting, glued to the television, trying to make sense of all of the overwhelming feelings that came out of the TV screen. It, like the tragedy at VT, will always remain in my thoughts. My heart goes out to all of those who have experienced a tragedy on a school campus, and my prayers are with the victims and families of Virgina Tech.

Tony Brown is a freshman at University of Missouri.