"Students are running everywhere. Holy God."
That was the tweet sent in the midst of the panic surrounding Thursday's mass shooting in Oregon from a woman who goes by the handle @KP_KaylaMarie.
The tweet immediately drew attention as a stunning example of the fear at the scene, a simple summation of the horror that had descended on Umpqua Community College.
Just as quickly, it also became a hunting ground for journalists seeking to find people to speak about the situation. Numerous producers for ABC News, CNN and other outlets responded to the tweet within minutes asking to contact her.
Social media reporting is now a staple of newsrooms, particularly as stories now break on Twitter and Facebook well before getting to any media outlets. Those efforts have been bolstered by tools that constantly comb through Twitter and find people reacting to breaking news.
The practice has drawn criticism in the past for being insensitive, but Thursday was different. Rarely has the practice of reporting been so visible and so scrutinized.
The tweet, which came from a person who goes by Kayla Marie on Twitter, was among the first to be tagged by Dataminr, a tool that is now in around 200 newsrooms. Within minutes of posting it, her tweet was in front of almost 5,000 journalists that use the service. (Mashable is a customer of Dataminr.)
The media response to the tweet was quickly met by backlash from people who felt the efforts were not just insensitive but indicative of the modern media's thirst to get the story at all costs.
Hi, I’m SOCIAL MEDIA STAFFER from BROADCAST OUTLET. I’m sorry you’re in the middle of TRAGEDY, but can you follow me so I can DM?— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) October 1, 2015
We journalists are vampires of tragedy. https://t.co/YDSUDyWLnn— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) October 1, 2015
Others, however, felt that however odious it might seem, the producers were doing their job.
Barry Petchesky of Deadspin wrote in a post entitled "Reporting Is Ugly" of his own history about talking to victims of tragedy, noting that a few tweets tend to be less invasive than the traditional journalist move of knocking on doors and confronting people who have just experienced trauma.
Both, he noted, can be tough.
"This is the gruesome business of newsgathering laid bare. It is invaluable and messy and it not only doesn’t diverge from the most basic principles of journalism, it exemplifies them," he wrote.
The reporters you're calling evil for tweeting at scared victims have no choice. It is their job. Love, Someone who used to have to do that— Stephanie Haberman (@StephLauren) October 1, 2015
The practice of reporters contacting witnesses and family members impacted by tragedy isn't new, as has been repeatedly pointed out.
What's different is the speed, number and openness of the process. Instead of news crews rushing to the scene, where only a few people would see the vans, it's journalists rushing to Twitter, where everyone with Internet access can see them.
Claire Wardle, research director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, noted that reporters weren't contacting a person after the tragedy had ended. Marie was clearly still in distress as she was being bombarded with media requests.
Wardle also noted that this has become a recurring problem, having happened all the way back to the shootings at Virginia Tech, the Tunisia beach attacks and even the recent Amtrak crash.
A quick Twitter search for "I'm a reporter with" turns up scores of reporters trying to contact victims, survivors or witnesses.
"We can't just hide behind the argument that journalists have alway done this and it's like seeing the sausage being made," Wardle said. "I don't think it's quite the same as door knocks."
Beyond the ethical implications of using social media for reporting is the reality that the practice could be doing harm more harm than good for journalism as well as individual media outlets.
The chilling effect of the practice is concerning. Marie made her Twitter account private not long after tweeting that she was safe and did not want to talk to the media.
"You lose the source because she's so traumatized and she doesn't talk to anybody," Wardle said.
Wardle also warned that the practice could be changing how witnesses react to shooting, noting that people are becoming much more conscious of the consequences of sharing information on social networks and moving to chat apps.
And it's not doing media outlets any favors in the long run. As a sharp commentary, members of one online community started intentionally misleading reporters.
4chan members are setting up fake Twitter accounts to tweet fake #UCCSHooting suspects at reporters and media orgs pic.twitter.com/RVZBa9h6Ml— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) October 1, 2015