Update on Andrew Meyer Coverage

The Independent Florida Alligator coverage of the Andrew Meyer Tasing incident has gotten even better!



A single Web page, accessible from the newspaper's home page, now brings together all the stories, photos and slide shows and provides a link to the video (noting that the newspaper didn't shoot it).

This package provides a terrific model for what to do when a big story breaks on your campus. Great work, Alligators.

You've seen the video; now read the story

Millions have seen the "Don't Tase me, bro" videos of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer heckling John Kerry at a forum and then being subdued with a Taser by campus police.

Now you can see how the Independent Florida Alligator covered the story.

The newspaper's coverage began with a breaking news story that went up shortly after the incident. Within a few hours there were more than 60 comments on the story from outraged readers.

Over the course of this week the newspaper also ran:

• Follow-up news stories about Meyer's release from jail, the university's president's "damage control" news conference, the state's investigation into the campus police's use of the Taser on the student, a press conference with Meyer's attorney and reaction from students.
  
  
• A slideshow on the incident.
  
  
• A slide show on reaction to the incident.
  
  
• Stories on campus protests on Tuesday and Wednesday.
  
  
• A piece about how the university was handling the unwanted publicity.
  
  
• Editorials about the incident and about the Taser policy.
  
  
• A feature on another University of Florida student named Andrew Meyer.
  
  
• A story and photo showing a police officer's memorial that was tagged with the line, "Don't Tase me, Bro."
  
  
• Several columns and blog posts about the incident.
  

One thing I didn't see, although it may have been there somewhere, was a link to the video. And it would have been nice if the paper packaged the stories together on the Web site so readers could follow the developments and look back at previous stories.

Still, overall, the coverage was deep, rich and thorough--a great example for college papers of how to cover a big breaking/developing news story. Kudos to the Independent Florida Alligator for a job well done.

We'd love to hear from Alligator editors about their experience with the story. Post a comment here.