Bloggasm

Early Monday morning, before most major news organizations had even picked up on the story, Virginia Tech’s college newspaper, Collegiate Times, posted an update to their site warning that there was a shooter on campus. Since then, the team of reporters made up entirely of college students have managed to stay ahead of the game, posting crucial information quoted by major members of the mainstream media. Editor and Publisher reports:

For most editors overseeing coverage of Monday’s tragic Virginia Tech shooting, years of reporting and editing experience are guiding their directives and decisions.

Not Amie Steele, editor-in-chief of Collegiate Times, the campus daily paper. In fact, the 21-year-old junior from Fredericksburg, Va. has been editor of the campus paper for less than three weeks. But from the way the college publication, at times, has led coverage of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, you wouldn’t know it.

The website started with blog-style updates, but now they’ve moved on and collected enough information to write actual articles with insider information. They’ve been linked by so many places that their website even crashed briefly.