On the morning of June 6, 2015, the unthinkable happened at Clinton Correctional Facility. While corrections officers were on a routine bed check, two inmates, Richard Matt and David Sweat, were missing from their cells. Both inmates were serving time for murder convictions. It was later discovered that the inmates tunneled their way out of the prison using hacksaw blades, which were provided by corrections employee, Joyce Mitchell. Governor Andrew Cuomo originally set $50,000 bounties for the capture of each inmate, but they were later raised to $75,000 each by the Marshal service.
As the inmates continued to evade law enforcement, the search expanded to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania and along the Canadian border. There were various sightings across counties of upstate New York, but it wasn’t until June 22nd, nearly three weeks after the escape, that police found any evidence of the prisoners. A cabin in Franklin County was discovered to have been broken into and DNA of the inmates was later collected from the scene. It was assumed that the inmates had fled the cabin within the previous 24 hours. On June 26th, Matt was spotted in Franklin County and was later shot and killed by border patrol agents while Sweat remained at large. Two days later, Sweat was captured in Constable, New York. The story was covered on virtually every news platform in a variety of ways.
In the midst of the manhunt, this story was everywhere you turned. There were constant updates about the investigation on live broadcasts. Due to the oddity of this occurrence, combined with the general public’s fear, the story quickly made national news. Every morning it was featured on Good Morning America, even if there were no new developments in the investigation. The story also made my local news station due to my home’s close proximity to the search radius. This was a very important story so it was the leading segment for about three weeks. News anchors often voiced their own opinion of the story through a conversational style of reporting which is unique to television news anchors. The television station would also use graphics and sound effects or music to create emphasis on the story.
Similar to television, online news has constant coverage of events. This platform is dynamic and has a sense of immediacy. The ability to use multimedia technology and display stories in video, text, audio, and graphics makes online news accommodating and convenient for the audience. When reading an article on the New York Times website about the confession of the employee who helped the prisoners escape, I was able to click on a hyperlink in the article which brought me to a previous article that discussed her motives and plan to have one of the inmates murder her husband after he escaped. While reading a print copy of the New York Times, this is not an option. After reading various articles, I would continue to read the comments at the bottom of the page. This feature gives the general public a way to voice their opinions and ask questions about news stories. It aids communication and is unique to online news.
Similar to the comment section on online news, radio news often accepts callers and puts them on the air. This is another way for the audience to voice their opinions and participate in the communication of news. I personally did not hear a broadcast about this story but it was likely a leading segment on radio news stations across the Tri-State area. Typically, radio shows have short segments and use fifteen-minute intervals. Radio is enduring because it is a secondary task. Most people listen to it while multitasking.
While this story was plastered all over the print platform of journalism, it was the most limiting of all four. Because newspapers are generally published once a day, updates are not available for twenty-four hours. If you want immediate news you would need to go online or turn on the television or even the radio. The escaped prisoners often made the front page with headlines such as, “How Two Prisoners Escaped A Maximum Security Prison,” and “Convicted Murderers Make ‘Shawshank’ Escape from U.S. Prison.” These titles capture the attention of readers and tempt them to continue to page 42 to read the whole story.
The platform that reported the most effectively on this matter was online news. The stories and updates were the most accessible and constant to readers. The only flaw I found with the online platform was the occasional mistake in articles. This is because news outlets want to be the first to break the story or release new details. While it is important to be quick, it is also important to be accurate and maintain credibility. For a developing story such as the three week man hunt for escaped felons, an audience is more inclined to follow the story online or on television or even on the radio rather than in print. Printed news is not as convenient as the other platforms and often does not contain the most recent updates and details.
