KUT Interview: Traditional And Social Media Covered Austin Bombing Case Dramatically Differently

Two people were killed and four were injured in a series of bombings in Austin, Texas, in March, 2018. The bomber blew himself up as police closed in on him early on the morning of March 21st. There are still many questions about the bomber’s motives and questions about other aspects of the case including how the media covered it. But the answers to those questions depend on which media you’re talking about. Craig Watkins teaches in the Radio-Television-Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin. When he talked with KUT's Jennifer Stayton about media coverage of the bombings, Watkins described two distinctly different types of coverage that he says mirror the shifting media landscape in general.