If It Bleeds, It Leads

Katie Cameron
kc313010@ohio.edu


The Sandy Hook shooting was huge news when it happened. The reporters were pressured to record footage and stream it onto their websites as soon as possible and also report on the story before other news stations did. Because of this, there was a few bits of information that were inaccurately reported or not reported at all.

People have different views on the media and how they report stories. Some think the media is respectful and keeps their distance when needed-- like at the children's funerals that passed away from the Sandy Hook shooting-- while others think that the media should mind their own business and be more respectful by not being outside a funeral. In my opinion, even though it might upset the friends and families involved in the funeral, I think the media should be outside reporting. They definitely should not pester the people for information, but I do believe the media offers an inside look that people outside of the situation want to see. The video below offers an inside view of a little girl's funeral and how the community came together to support her friends and family.

In this case, it does not look like the reporter who recorded this footage intruded on the funeral at all. There are a few pictures of people leaving the church, but it does not seem intrusive. It looks like the reporter kept his distance from the funeral and let the family mourn without disrupting them. 

        

One of the articles talked about never naming a murderer because that opens doors for copy cats. I do not think this is true what-so-ever. A name does not cause someone to become a copy cat and try to murder someone or a couple of people. A name is merely a name. The action that the murderer did causes people to want to be like them. If the media wants to try to stop crime, maybe it should stop reporting about the signs of being a murderer or exactly what the murderer/shooter did during the situation. Why is it important to tell everything that the shooter used a handgun to shoot the person in the foot, leg and head? That causes crazy people to want to be a copy cat, not their name.

The article did agree that the name is not the only thing causing people to want to become copy cats. It is the details leading up to the crime, like childhood danger signs of having a troubled future, the person's life history, and what kind of gun or tool the person used to do the crime. This information makes people think about their own life and creates copy cats. 

An outside article states that "Though the public uses the term loosely and unscientifically, researchers say a true copycat crime must incorporate a key aspect of the original crime and must be clearly influenced by media coverage of the first crime." This shows that media does affect outside viewers and the possibility of a copy cat committing a crime because of another crime.

The media is something that people today need. We live for breaking news and we always want to know about something as soon as it happens. Because of this, reporters do not have a lot of time to gather facts to create a concrete article. Sometimes, information is not accurately reported due to the pressures of being the first with the story.