Stephanie Effken

    It hardly seems a reality that the Virginia Tech shooting was just over a year ago. It hardly seems humane that it happened at all.
     A tragedy of this magnitude is one most people will forever remember including how and when they heard the news, and what kind of emotional response it evoked.
     For me, it was a stark truth that I, as a college student no different from those at Virginia Tech, could very well experience this same thing.
     Reflecting upon other events of equal tragedy–because every loss of human life in an act of terror is a tragedy–such as the shooting at Northern Illinois University, the events of 9-11, the Von Maur shooting, Columbine, and the list could go on, the victims were unsuspecting and innocent.
     There are tragedies occurring each day, all over the world. We hear some of them on the news but a majority of deaths are pushed to the side, being labeled not newsworthy.
     In November, I attended the National Communications Association Conference in Chicago. The weekend consisted of expert panels presenting valid and conclusive research on a variety of different subjects.
     Through attending a panel on the Virginia Tech shooting, I began to think a little more about tragedy, society and the media.
     Most of the panel discussed the security measures of Virginia Tech, future efforts by other universities to ensure campus safety and the long road to emotional healing. One, however, took a different route and looked at this tragedy as it relates to the media and the implications of "newsworthy."
     From what I remember, the presenter hit the media hard by showing examples of newspaper headlines and article sizes relating to a tragic death and their location in the paper.
     Another journalism student from Concordia University attended the session with me. We both concluded that what is newsworthy is not decided by the journalist or the editor, but it is mostly–if not solely–determined by society's interests.
     The panelist discussed the current war and the tragic deaths associated with it. He pointed out that society often dismisses the death of a solider, or maybe just reduces it to the back of the paper–which seems odd since the news has a reputation of only reporting the negative.
     The same is true for the frequent car bombings in the Middle East. For a while, car bombings seemed newsworthy, but upon the perpetual occurrences they became something of less importance.
     Surely, a tragic death is something worthy to report, but the media cannot and will not print or air stories that society does not deem newsworthy.
     I guess the real question or concern here would be society's desensitization and degradation of tragedy to nothing more than a fact of life.
     I think it is a sad reality that we label a human life as newsworthy or not. But the truth: it is a reality.
     The national media cannot report all things happening in the world, and I guess for reasons of capital stability they cannot continue reporting on things that society is numb to.
     The answer could be the state of war we have found ourselves in for years. Has war become the norm? Have we become numb to the deaths of those protecting our freedom?
     These are critical questions that need to be asked. If the answer is yes, I believe we have a whole other set of problems and questions to sort out.
     This all all a perfect example of the equalibrium between the media and society. People rant about the influence of the media on society– "Brittney Spears is making my daughter wear short shirts;" "The news is making me paranoid;" "Violent video games made my child bring a gun to school."
     I think it's important for concerned citzens to ask themselves why the media shows violence, gossip, etc. It's because it has become a part of our culture and to make money, the media must give the public what it wants.
     This seems to be a vicious cyclical pattern, where society is outraged by the media's content, but our nature is intrigued by it. So therefore, the media's content is what the consumer wants.