I’m sure everyone has asked themselves this question when watching any form of news program. It’s hard not to ask this question every headline you see mentions death, disease or corruption. While it may appear as though every form of media you take in is trying to drive you insane with all its negative stories, these stories of despair need to be told and they are stories that the public has both a right and need to know.

There is a long history of journalism attached to the importance of shining a light on these stories; and almost all the time it is because there is some sort of moral wrong doing or crime being committed. A famous precedent that I like to bring up when someone criticizes the news for only reporting on negative stories is the Vietnam War.

Before the Vietnam War, wars were typically reported over the radio. Average citizens did not see the atrocities and damages that war caused because there was a visual barrier in between them and the actual conflict. Spoken and written descriptions of the bloodshed that occurred had a limited effect on listeners at home. However, things changed when television began to became a staple of the average American citizen

The brand-new, live-action element that television brought to the media changed the game forever. People could see the carnage and children fleeing napalm in the distance. After seeing the despair of warfare, going to war as a nation was no longer a pure act of bravery and patriotism; many viewed it as an act of terror.

The newfound mass distain for war that many in the country felt quickly stoked the fires of an already growing revolution that rejected the stereotypical social norms of the 1950s. This counterculture movement, led to massive protests as the media continued to report on violence in Vietnam including one of the most controversial incidents of the war known as the My Lai Massacre in which hundreds of innocent Vietnamese civilians were murdered by U.S. operatives.

The brutality in the media was not limited to overseas, but also involved domestic issues regarding the war. One of the most notable events being the Kent State Massacre in which four students were killed and nine were wounded after national guardsmen opened fire on a protest at the university.

These travesties only furthered the hatred for the United States’ involvement in Vietnam and the protests instigated by media coverage of massacres and fighting was ultimately one of the many deciding factors in the removal of American troops from the war-torn nation.

This is why reporting the news, whether it is negative or positive, is crucial for a society’s survival. Without the coverage events of tragic events occurring domestically and internationally, no one would ever know about the issues happening behind the blinders. It’s up to journalists to continue to uncover wrongdoings and morally unjust stories, but it is also up to average citizens like us to understand why those stories need and deserve the attention that they get.