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Virginia Tech Essay With the most resent massacre at Virginia Tech the issue of media ethics has once again been brought into question. This, I believe, is because of the need to understanding why or how this could happen. Perhaps this understanding could prevent another violent incident from happening to our children and to our society and allow a certain type of closure in our grief. In researching the topic of journalistic ethics and its effects on behavior, I found three distinct concerns that related to the Virginia Tech massacre does the media influence or encourage behavior? And if so, what steps is the media taking to understand this issue? Is the media industry trying to create a plan to regulate how incidents of this nature are portrayed, or how they will be reported and in what context? It should also be noted that in all the information on violent behavior everyone agrees that there is not one single indicator that will predict human behavior and that all avenues must be explored to fully understand human behavior which is very complex. But there is evidence available that does show a correlation between media and adolescent violence. In the United States children and young adults are among the highest at risk for experiencing violent crimes and violence. We can also claim that a large portion of our time is spent interacting in the world of media. Some forms of media used by American adolescents have been found to be very violent and this is where the question of media’s effect on behavior comes in. Shortly after the Virginia Tech incident a USA Today article told of a popular game called â€Å"Assassin†. This game is played on both college and high school campuses across America. Police officers have been urging students, â€Å"to halt the games, which involve ambushing other players with sometimes realistic looking toy gun or other objects, after the Virginia Tech shooting last week that left 33 people dead†. The local authorities did this as a preventive measurement for the safety of the kids playing as well as others by mistaken intent (Welch). The Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Student Press joined together to discuss how school violence is to be covered. The discussion was to try to see how to balance reporting the news with minimizing harm to students across the country. If shooters get their fifteen minutes of fame†, especially is they are dubbed as the heroic outlaw, then this opens the possible problems of increasingly more disenfranchised nobodies who may view violence as a way to become noticed. Reporters pressured to get the story and make it central on the nightly news may not be sensitive to the effects of their coverage in the larger scheme of things (Fitzgerald and Mitchell). Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is important to justice and the foundation of democracy. The organization also believes that the duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. They believe that all journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. They go on to say that professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalists credibility. Members of the Society share a dedication to ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the Societys principles and standards of practice (www. spj. org). In more resent weeks NBC news has been under fire for the way it handled the pictures and writings of the student who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. NBC announced that it would limit its use of images to â€Å"no more than 10 percent of airtime†. Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, strongly defended the network’s decision to broadcast the material. Families of some of the victims, some law enforcement officials and executives from competing television news organizations have accused NBC of being insensitive or exploitative in the way it presented the materials on the air. (Carter). Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance. Journalist must recognize that private citizens have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy. Journalist must show good taste, avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects or victims of sex crimes, be judicious about naming criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges and balance a criminal suspect’s fair trial rights with the public’s right to be informed. Works Cited Fitzgerald, Mark, and Mitchell, Grey. , Eds. Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved May 3, 2007. http://www. spj. org/pressnotes Greene, Kathern. â€Å"Predicting Exposure to and Linking of Media Violence: A uses and Gratification Approach†. Communication Studies, March 2005. V. 56, Issue 1, p. 71-93. 23p.