Media Coverage and Response
Within a week of Brandon Crisp's disappearance the case received significant media coverage throughout Ontario. Toronto-based outlets such as The Toronto Star, Citytv, CP24, and others covered the story, and national outlets such as the National Post, CTV and CBC soon picked it up as well. A Facebook page started by Brandon's classmates at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Barrie, titled "Where is Brandon Crisp", grew to almost 22,000 members by the time his body was found.
The news of the discovery of Brandon Crisp's body also made national news throughout Canada, with coverage on all major national TV networks and both Ontario and national newspapers. The Toronto Sun published it as the front page headline and picture on November 6, 2008. Thousands of people also flooded the Facebook group and other internet forums with expressions of grief and sympathy for the family.
The story generated Internet coverage from bloggers and others trying to help find Brandon, such as the creation of the 'findbrandoncrisp.com' website (no longer online), discussions of the video-game related issues, and discussions of how the tragedy emotionally affected the community, police involved, and even strangers.
The report of Brandon's death also generated an amount of anonymous internet trolling, with many messages and photos posted to the Facebook group that most group members and friends found to be upsetting and disturbing, resulting in the group being shut down; an example of what Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times has called "Malwebolence".
Brandon Crisp was laid to rest in Barrie on November 14, 2008, in a service attended by over 1700 fellow students, friends, family, and community members. National media covered the service, featured as the lead-item on most Ontario newscasts. The Crisp family has created the Brandon Crisp Endowment Fund, working with Canadian Tire's JumpStart charity program for assisting families in financial need to participate in minor sports and recreational activities. By October 2009 over $140,000 has been raised.
Brandon's story continues to be referenced in discussions about video game addiction and influence, with debate about whether Brandon's obsession with the Call of Duty actually was a contributing factor to his death, or whether this case was just a tragedy that began with an ordinary teen-parent argument.
On March 6, 2009, the CBC's national newsmagazine program the fifth estate aired an hour-long report on video game addiction and the Brandon Crisp story, titled "Top Gun", subtitled "When a video gaming obsession turns to addiction and tragedy". The program had sent a team to Barrie to interview Brandon's parents and friends before Brandon's body had been found, and those segments were combined with interviews of gaming industry representatives and others. While the program did acknowledge that video gaming was not directly responsible for Brandon's death, many journalists and bloggers felt that the program was not balanced and fair, singling out the video game industry and focusing less on the need for parents to educate themselves about video games. Columnist Steve Tilley of the Toronto Sun newspaper called the report "Lazy, cheap and disappointingly one-sided", though he does admit that the report succeeds "in exploring why Brandon Crisp might have become so addicted to Call Of Duty 4".
Read more about this topic: Disappearance Of Brandon Crisp
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