In a wired world, the news media plays an imperative role in providing accurate information about current events. A journalist’s most important job is to publish reliable, verified facts – not speculation or unverified conjecture. It is also the job of the news media to ensure that they are not sensationalizing or glorifying heinous acts that occur throughout the country. The media has failed in both of these duties over the past year.

Social media users are bombarded by information, but it is the job of the news media to post only the confirmed and accurate information. The news networks inaccurately reported that Ryan Lanza was the gunman in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, but then later reported that it was in fact his brother Adam. They also reported that Nancy Lanza, the gunman’s mother, was a teacher at the school and that there were two shooters at the scene.

All of these theories were guesses and unconfirmed rumors, but news organizations reported them as fact. The information was inaccurate and potentially damaging. People of the community may have thought there was another gunman on the loose, and that Ryan Lanza, who cooperated fully with police and has no criminal background, was the murderer.

Another thing that news organizations have done throughout the year is sensationalize the stories and place the shooters in infamy. Heinous acts often come with fame. Too many people know Ted Bundy’s name, but too few know his victims’ names. Adam Lanza could become a household name, but who will remember Madeleine Hsu, Emilie Parker or Noah Pozner? This chance at infamy can be just as motivating to a potential murderer as a fit of rage.

Giving so much publicity to the shooter only encourages more violence for the sake of fame and attention. To a mentally disturbed person, that fame is motivation enough. Threats against children and elementary schools have actually increased since the Sandy Hook shooting, as well as threats of massacres and murder in general. These people are allured by fame. They want to be known for their role in the number one deadliest school shooting.

That is why it is so essential for us to know and remember the victims, not their killer.

Finally, the media’s methods of getting information have been unethical in several cases. Shoving a microphone into the face of a distressed child or overwhelmed mother is damaging. Ambushing parents who have just lost their child is cruel. Ethics took the backseat in the reporting of the Sandy Hook shooting.

This is why it is essential for the news media, be it an international wire like the Associated Press or a small high school newspaper, to report things ethically and accurately. Informing the public and making issues prominent is a duty for news media, but sensationalizing only causes more issues.