“Death sells. If it bleeds, it leads.”Loren Coleman, media researcher and author of The Copycat Effect, identifies this philosophy of the media, given their enthusiasm for covering mass murder stories.In particular, he addresses the special fascination we hold for serial killers, as evidenced by the books, music, Web sites and movies we have dedicated to them.The media, aware of this fascination and able to feed it, do so readily without discretion or regard for the consequences such meticulous attention to detail might provide.To glamorize the killers by plastering their methods, their diary entries and their obsessions nationwide for days on end does nothing but satiate public curiosity and boost sales.This glamorization has an unhealthy backlash, however. It encourages aspiring killers and other infamy-seekers to emulate what they hear in the news.But unless there is a consensus among the national networks, there will be no revamping of this ethical gray area for fear of plummeting sales. Neither will a lone network tone down their profiling, for there is no guarantee the other networks would follow suit.Therefore the media, fueled by the never-ending competition for the most sensational story, will continue its frenzied courtship of society’s disturbed outcasts.If the media were to reach a consensus to cut back on the hype, we would not detract from anything truly newsworthy and provide public benefit, considering the alarming correlation Coleman has pointed out between media exposure of violence and an increase of violence.This correlation explains why mass murder sprees, which are usually a rarity, claimed 60 American lives in the past month.  It isn’t as if the media could offer us new information by digging up the dirty laundry of killers, so the newsworthiness of extensive profiling is diminished.All we need to know is, in the broadest sense, these killers are ostracized basement-dwellers who kill to exert control and “get back” at those who’ve wronged them.  By means of this patterned violence they catapult themselves into posthumous infamy, thereby simultaneously “exacting justice” and ensuring they are remembered.The most notorious example of this is the aftermath of the Columbine shooting, orchestrated and executed by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris in 1999.Certain Web sites exist solely to glorify the violence of the shooters, hailing them as “heroes” of a sort.Emulation of Columbine extends beyond commending comments. In the month following the shootings, kids across the nation wore trench coats to school in mimicry of Klebold and Harris.The one who took emulation the farthest was Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter of the Virginia Tech massacre.Cho wrote in a school assignment about wanting to “repeat Columbine” and eventually followed through with his desire, choosing a day close to the Columbine anniversary to begin his methodical killing spree.Before he began killing, however, Cho sent an organized news package of angry, self-pitying videos, stills and text to NBC News.The only obvious conclusion is that Cho pursued infamy, as evidenced by the news package, and found a way to gain it from what he knew of Columbine, courtesy the media.Although the media isn’t wholly to blame for these killings, there is an undeniable amount of causation involved, one which journalists should be highly aware of.Instead of fawning over the killers, the media should place modest emphasis on the victims and their families.To do so would not only show respect for those who were lost but would serve to discourage prospective killers by eliminating any chance of gaining infamy.Linnie Leavines is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Central. 
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