In the recent murder of three students at Chardon High School in Cleveland, Ohio, T.J. Lane is yet another teenage killer who used violence as a means to "solve" his problems.
By giving primary attention to the murderer instead of the victims, the news allowed Lane to succeed in gaining attention and fame in spreading his message of fear. Since the conception of mass media, too many news outlets have played the role of entertainer instead of increasing awareness of societal issues.
Just like celebrity news, murders are now a form of entertainment in everything from magazines to television shows and are given excessive attention.
According to a 1997 National Television Violence study, by the time the average child leaves elementary school, he or she will have witnessed 8,000 murders over television.
By desensitizing kids and the rest of society to murder while teaching aggressive actions, I believe that the media is at the root of school shootings from Columbine High School in Colorado to Chardon.
Lane was a quiet kid who separated himself from the rest of Chardon's student body. His family life was broken, dark and troubled, and his peers frequently bullied him.
He forewarned what was to come on his Facebook page, posting a 400-word long poem that ended with, "die all of you," according to The Huffington Post. No one took Lane seriously.
The following day, three of his peers lay dead at his hand. Such a tragic event must be covered sufficiently, but in some cases, while switching through the channels, I noticed a large amount of attention was given to Lane instead of the victims.
Newscasts focused primarily on making his past a story of intrigue for viewers. His horrendous actions not only put fear into his school, but fear into the nation. The Chardon tragedy is eerily similar to the 1999 Columbine massacre.
The Columbine shooting was the deadliest school massacre to occur at any high school in American history according to USA Today. Two shooters killed 13 people and left several more wounded before committing suicide.
It was a source of horror and fear for people across the nation, and the media provided constant, sensationalized coverage. In the aftermath of the horrendous shooting at Columbine, many schools closed due to "copycat" shooting threats.
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The aftermath of Chardon came with almost exactly the same reactions, with added tension as students around the country praised the actions of the killers over Facebook.
In both school shooting cases, the shooters were outcasts and felt as though they had no voice amongst their peers. T.J. Lane and the several other teenagers before him turned to murder to speak out against his mistreatment and to gain fame and power by shocking his aggressors and the nation.
Their message, however, could not have been achieved without the media's help. News holds an extraordinary amount of power to influence people's perspectives and behavior.
I believe it has the power to mobilize millions of people and therefore needs to stop covering horrific murders at the high rates that it does.
Instead of reporting on all the dirty details of murderers and crimes, media organizations need to make stories that increase awareness of societal issues to spark change.
To see a decline in violent tragedies such as this one, I strongly believe there must first be a decline in the sensationalism of the media. However, this is unlikely to happen, as media naturally puts profits above the best interest of society.
But all is not lost; change must begin at the source of the problem: America's schools. Students, beginning at Miami University, can take solid steps to end bullying and social ostracism.
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