Reading headlines like this chills me, compelling me to stop and read: “Girl, 7, airlifted to hospital after accidental hanging”. I connect solidly: my child is 7. With all the random injuries I sustained as a child, seems rather amazing at times that I avoided becoming such a statistic. While my thoughts and prayers are with this family as they navigate this horror, my attention wanders.
As often happens with stories such as this, there is a burst of information, of “story”, which then vanishes from the public eye forever. It is likely there will be no resolution. In this age of data, and the near limitless ability to present information, would there be value in news orgs following up, finding the end of this story? With our ability to tag and link coalescing this thread into one story would be easy. That, to me, is a key power in this new medium.
Of course, I tend to play both sides and, thus, wonder if there is value of just having the burst and then letting this alone; allowing people to exist in the mystery? Would the follow up I propose invade? Do I, as an observer, really have any rights towards resolution? Certainly the family’s needs are paramount. Is there, in the end, a clear answer? I, being me, find my answer “no”. Yet I will respect your different finding. Humanity is quite complex, is it not?
