Essay Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Question: label the three appeals in this essay “We remember Columbine as a pair of outcast Goths from the Trench Coat Mafia snapping and tearing through their high school hunting down jocks to settle a lone-running feud. Almost none of that happened” (Cullen 149). If you haven’t read Columbine by Dave Cullen, then you likely thought of Columbine as the misperception created by the media that Dave Cullen described. In the past few years, the media has grown a reputation of misconstruing events and shaping narratives. Along with becoming synonymous with the term “fake news”. However, this has been long running. Columbine is the biggest example of the media spreading myths and shaping narratives, but the media has continued this atrocity since the tragedy of Columbine. The media is solely responsible for the myths and erroneous narratives because they hold the power to spread them, they put a larger focus on getting a story than investigating events, and they ignore key pieces of information. Columbine in the media was a disaster. The media got almost everything wrong. From their motivations for the event to who was involved. In the year 1999, the year of Columbine, 34% of Americans trusted television news, and 33% trusted newspapers either a great amount or quite a lot. While 41% trusted some television news and 44% trusted some newspapers. In total about 75% of Americans trusted news at least somewhat in 1999 (Gallup). The job of the news is to inform and educate the public on current events. What if the news failed? What if the news is entirely wrong on an event? This is what happened in 1999. The news failed America in 1999. Sadly, this is a common occurrence. It’s a major issue today. 86% of US adults get some sort of news whether that’s just from their phone or a news station (Pew Research Center). That means roughly 225 million Americans have some sort of interaction with the news. Only 12% of Americans have a great deal of trust or quite a lot of trust in television news and 18% in newspapers. This is a problem in America. This is why we as a people need to hold the media responsible for spreading misinformation and myths. The media is powerful. So many Americans trust the media that when they spread a narrative, it sticks. This has been shown throughout American history. During the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam. He was a CBS news anchor. When he came back to America, he told the public that the Vietnam War was going to end in a stalemate, and that we needed to end the war. This caused the public to have even more disapproval for the war. This in turn caused Lyndon B. Johnson to star pulling out of Vietnam, and for him to not run for reelection as Cronkite had harmed his reputation. Our next president, Nixon completely pulled out of Vietnam as the public no longer supported the war. This shows how powerful the media can be. Walter Cronkite told America we weren’t going to win, and that changed Americans minds about the war. He changed history by reporting what he thought. What if Cronkite spread misinformation? If he had said we were winning the war. It would’ve made Americans have a larger support for the war. Either way Cronkite was able to shape history by spreading information to create informed and educated citizens, the job of the news and media. The evolving landscape of media and news often places a greater emphasis on immediacy and sensationalism rather than thorough investigation, a trend that was evident during the coverage of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. During the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, numerous media outlets raced to deliver breaking news, often relying on incomplete and sometimes erroneous information. This haste led to the widespread belief of inaccurate details, such as the initial claims about the number of shooters, their motives, and the myth of the "Trench Coat Mafia." All of these could have been easily proved wrong from a majority of student testimony, but the media used the most sensational stories to get people’s attention. These pieces of misinformation not only misled the public but also hindered the proper understanding of the incident. The pressure to rapidly produce compelling stories overshadowed the necessity for investigating and verification, consequently shaping public perception based on premature and sensationalized reportage rather than on factual, evidence-based journalism. The media often has a tendency to overlook key pieces of information, particularly when it comes to complex or sensational events, such as the Columbine High School massacre. In the aftermath of the tragedy, much of the media coverage initially portrayed the perpetrators as outcasts and members of the "Trench Coat Mafia," focusing on stereotypes rather than verified facts. Key elements of the shooters' backgrounds and motivations, such as their mental health issues, Eric being a psychopath and Dylan having severe depression, and the detailed planning that revealed deeper psychological and societal problems, were not given the same level of attention. Instead, sensationalized narratives dominated headlines, majorly skewing public perception and neglecting the opportunity for a deeper understanding and discussion about preventing future tragedies. They decided to use pieces that best fit the easiest narrative to report. That Eric and Dylan were outcasts and were bullied, causing them to reach their breaking point. This selective reporting creates misinformation and an incomplete narrative, ultimately hindering effective dialogue and solutions. While it is often pointed out that the media cannot control the raw information that arises from events, such as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, however they do have control over what information they choose to disseminate and how they frame it. In the case of Columbine, initial reports by the media were rife with inaccuracies and sensationalism. They emphasized the “Trench Coat Mafia” narrative and other misleading details that were later proven incorrect. The media chose to prioritize sensational aspects and speculative theories, which shaped public perception and fueled nationwide panic about youth violence and culture. More balanced and thorough reporting could have provided a more accurate understanding of the situation, promoting informed discourse rather than fear and misinformation. This demonstrates that while the media may not control the occurrence of events, their editorial choices powerfully influence public perception and understanding, underscoring their critical role in the responsible spreading of information. The media and news getting stories wrong and spreading misinformation undermines their role in America, to create informed and educated citizens on current events. When majority of our nation watches the news and trusts it, the news needs to get it right. When the news doesn’t properly investigate issues, that’s a problem. Today less and less people trust the news, and it’s because of these episodes of misinformation they spread. They decide to push a narrative, and it loses the trust of the people. If we can’t trust the news, how are we supposed to be informed and educated on current events? We can’t until we can trust the news. Until the news does proper investigation and presents factual information. This is why we as a people need to hold the media and news responsible for spreading misinformation and perpetrating myths."