Everybody knows who Ted Bundy is.
Nikolas Cruz and John Wayne Gacy are names constantly seen flashing throughout multiple media platforms.
People know their stories, life, upbringing and horrors.
Now name one of their victims. Maybe one, possibly two, pop into your mind.
But considering the countless lives these murderers took, it’s honestly shameful we know more about the individuals who committed these travesties than the human beings whose lives they shamelessly stole.
Society is obsessed with the dark and ugly. The obscenely terrifying is what thrills people. But it shouldn’t.
Humans, by nature, are inherently fascinated in the distraught and weird. It’s intriguing to see how others think, feel or instinctively can’t feel.
What’s not okay, however, is the normalization of these people.
When a mass shooting or murder occurs, one shouldn’t share the perpetrator’s name or background.
It’s not important. What’s important, however, is who he or she has directly impacted. People who lived and lost. People with aspirations, families and dreams. People who will never get to experience being human ever again.
It’s a fault on the media for constantly broadcasting perpetrators instead of highlighting the value of the victims lost in the mass.
It’s our job as society to rebrand this image.
Understanding the psychology of murderers is important to preventing them from happening in the first place– but make sure to leave this to professional psychologists.
Stop glamorizing the evil within humanity and start humanizing these horrible occurrences.
The media starts the initial conversation, so why not be the one to change it?
Encourage compassion and solidarity. Don’t support these people.
The publication of murderers or wrongdoers sends a message to a younger, more impressionable or naïve audience that perpetrating these horrific acts will lead to fame, recognition and attention.
This media awareness does nothelp the situation. If anything, it only satisfies the killer more, and inclines more individuals to carry out these heinous crimes.
Documentaries should focus on who was impacted on the situation. The victims rather than the perpetrators.
Instead of picking at the brains of the murderers, trying to figure out why they committed these acts in the first place, why not focus on honoring the lives that were lost.
It’s important for the media to recognize this importance, because without this change, nothing good will ever come.
It’s up to us to change. It’s up to us to impact humanity for the better.