Spiros Souliotis The media of the modern world which includes newspapers, radio, television and the internet, has the ability to not only influence the effects of disaster, but to greatly mitigate them. Media itself is responsible for presenting information to the public while also respecting victims. In this respect, the media is a failure, as its disregard for the victims’ rights or privacy is becoming increasingly prevalent therefore, preventing it from influencing the effects of disasters in a positive way. A tragic event that stirred the nation and was considered one of the media’s failures to influence the effects of a disaster, was the Columbine High School shooting. The media covered the event, but did not do so objectively. Failing to realize the “big picture” and focusing on one “little corner of the picture” the event was reported inadequately and truly unfaithfully. Furthermore, Anup Shah highlights how the media should be carrying out its public service by making informed reports. “Instead of inadequate and sensationalist coverage such as the Columbine School shooting, the media should be striving for the objective and complete coverage it pretends to present.” It quickly becomes apparent that the media is developing a terrible notoriety when it comes to reporting on disastrous events. In the “Privacy Piercers” by Robert Lissit, the media is accused of doing nothing to aid disaster vitcims but instead seeks to siphon any and all information out of an individual or hroup before its competitors do. Therefore, the quality and credibility of the reports deteriorate, and victims of a disaster are treated with minimal respect. Taking the victims of the Pan Am 103 flight crash and the residents of Lockerbie, Scotland as an example, the event caused the friends and families of the victims to be subjected to a “media melee” and “intrusive reporting.” The crudeness and borderline criminality of the media can also be traced back to Hurricane Katrina where the overindulgence of reporting caused the public to become unsympathetic to the relief effort, thus causing more harm than good. The media does not always