PENN STATE SCANDAL

When I used to hear Joe Paterno’s name, all I thought about was the legendary coach that had become the college football icon that he was. However, it appears he is far from that iconic figure that everyone thinks of. Now I understand he was not the one to actually do anything but that’s the biggest problem, he did nothing. He never looked into what was happening and just turned his back to it. He has been dismissed with a tarnished legacy, which is very sad.

Twitter has blowing up the past few days with the scandal at Penn State University. They started out with a few different themes, like remembering the victims, Joe Pateron’s dismissal and ended today with the football game against Nebraska. It was interesting to hear about students piling on to Paterno’s lawn to vie for his job just because he is an icon in college football. I for one feel like that was completely disrespectful to the victims that suffered under his negligence to follow up on the situations and ignore what was happening. But why should that be surprising when the majority of media focuses on the fall of this beloved coach when he was fired and then they focused on how everyone expected the players in the game today to come out fighting for their first game without there coach.

The difference in media and social media though it drastic when looking at the twitter updates relating to Penn State. You are able to see that some people don’t know the real situation and didn’t know it was the assistant coach who was the real perpetrator and also it has given the students an outlet to give there opinions. However, by the time today rolled around most of the updates where about the pressure on the football game and then those of the results of the game. It will be interesting to see what else comes to surface in the next few days or weeks because with most scandals there is more than what meets the eye and I look forward to seeing how the media differs from the social media world when reporting the newly surfaced facts.

Lauren Olson

KIN 577