Telegenic and media-savvy is one way to describe David Hogg, a senior at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But maybe a better way is this: Change agent.
And what could be more sorely needed than a change agent right now? Because the mass shootings in America have become a horror of repetition in which meaningful change has come to seem impossible.
Enter Hogg. The 17-year-old is the school's student news director, who not only interviewed his fellow students during the horrific massacre at his school on Wednesday, but then spoke with passion to national media figures, providing footage that has now circled the globe.
In a level gaze directly into CNN's camera, Hogg called out politicians for their hapless dithering.
"We're children. You guys are the adults. ... Work together, come over your politics and get something done," Hogg said.
Hogg wasn't the only survivor who demonstrated thoughtfulness and poise last week.
When CBS' Jeff Glor interviewed four Douglas High students on his news show Thursday night, their quiet strength was remarkable.
Two of the students Glor interviewed made the too-familiar case that it is too soon to be entering into political conversations. Another argued for greater gun control. One wanted to remind viewers to express love to their family and friends while they can.
But what ties them together is their command of the visual medium and their powerful composure amid the worst kind of tragedy.
This seems all the more notable because they are teenagers. But, in fact, it's probably their very youth, and the all-digital world of social media--the water they've always swum in--that makes it possible.
Editorial on 02/20/2018