On Friday, December 14th, 20-year-old Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and gunned down 20 small children and 6 brave teachers and professionals. The news of such a heartless tragedy struck the nation hard; a massacre to this extent and of children so young has never been heard of. The brutality of the event brought people everywhere to tears and even those unaffected by the event felt the pain and suffering that those in Newtown, Connecticut felt.
When tragedies like the Newtown shooting occur, people across the world can join in on the mourning due to the role of the media.
Shortly after the shooting began, news stations were on top of the story and followed up with every small detail that they obtained. Reporters were in the scene instantly, helicopters flew above the school, and pictures of children and teachers alike were spread across headlines from shore to shore, and even further. In this sense, the world can come together and support a small town during such a horrible time.
But is the coverage always positive? For days, the news covered the tragedy in Newtown at all hours of the day. It became a regular thing to turn on the television and immediately be taken over by waves of new information provided to the news stations.
Radio stations kept constant coverage of the event as well, and newspaper headlines outlining the tragedy have been in abundance. Even now, over a month after the event, there are frequent mentions of the tragedy. Although the world should know when such events occur, there can come a point when the reports can become overwhelming.
The downside of constant media coverage of such events depends on what is expressed in the stories. The message that people should care about the victims of such an event is positive; for respect of the victims and those affected, these kinds of events should never be forgotten.
However, there are times when the media covers information that would be better left out of the stories.
Often when people such as Adam Lanza commit a terrible act like this, it is believed that they do so in order to go out of their lives with their name being known.
Because of the media coverage of events, the names of those that commit the act are released as soon as they are discovered. In a way, the one who commits the act gets exactly what they wanted in the first place: to be noticed.
Adam Lanza is a man that people will never forget. Due to the way his personality was revealed to the public, it is believed that being noticed might have been what he wanted.
Whether this is the case or not, other people in a similar state of mind as Lanza may get the wrong idea when they see how those that commit a terrible crime are turned into infamous celebrities for all the wrong reasons.
Along with potentially creating a name for someone that doesn’t deserve it, the media also keeps tragedies circulating as long as possible, which could have a negative impact on the community itself. For over a month now, constant information and stories have been circulating the news, print media, and radio broadcasts. With the media talking about the event for so long, there isn’t really a chance for the community involved, in this case Newtown, to recover and mourn about the tragedy in peace. When such an event occurs, those who are involved need time to mourn about their losses. There are some people that may not want to be reminded of the tragedy because it doesn’t give them the chance to grieve. The constant reminder may allow the world to share in pain, but it doesn’t give the community time to heal.
Coverage of tragic events such as the Newtown shooting gives the world the sense of shared pain and creates awareness. But for the sake of the community, the media should decide what and how they convey the information they obtain. Instead of turning the focus to the man that did the crime, the focus should purely be on what others can do to help the victims as well as stop such events from happening again. The media should also respect the privacy and mourning of the community and instead of nonstop coverage, they should eventually give the people the time they need to heal from the horror of the event.
The world needs to know when tragedies like the Newtown shooting happen. Awareness is key and it’s what brings the world together. However, what the media expresses in its stories should be monitored more closely, as well as the length of time that such events are reported. The way the media reports about a tragedy can have a detrimental impact on the community and around the world, so it is their job to report what is right.