Alison Parker and Adam Ward are remembered as ‘the kindest and nicest people’ at WDBJ

You might have heard: Two journalists were fatally shot on Wednesday morning during a live interview in Moneta, Va. (CNN)

But did you know: WDBJ general manager Jeff Marks says Alison Parker and Adam Ward were “the kindest and nicest people” at the station. Parker “cared about her stories and took a genuine interest in what people said,” friend and freelance journalist Becky Blanton says. Former WDBJ employee Larell Reynold says of Ward: “He had such a positive outlook on life, and he was so determined to put a smile on your face.”

+ Before Wednesday, only 8 journalists have been killed while on assignment, at work, or for their work in the U.S. since 1992 (Poynter) and the small newsroom maintained composure while covering its own tragedy (Washington Post)

+ Video from the shooting posted on social media showed the downside to autoplay video: As the videos were shared, the killings were autoplayed in users’ feeds, though they were quickly removed by Facebook and Twitter (Wall Street Journal), putting the networks in an uncomfortable position and “raising questions about how they’ll treat a feature that makes their products more dynamic and is loved by the advertisers who pay their bills” (BuzzFeed)

+ Lessons from the coverage: WDBJ chose not to run the video “because, frankly, we don’t need to see it again, and our staff doesn’t need to see it again,” as other news organizations chose to continue running it (Washington Post), and Al Tompkins writes that the appropriate time to use the video was in the early hours after the shooting because the “what” of the story was still unfolding (Poynter)

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