As a country we strive not to withhold information from the public. This is a characteristic of America that separates us from many countries across the world. We like to know everything immediately and technology has made it easier to do so. However, such easy and public access requires a degree of censorship that some protest and others guard. The issue of censorship within the media is very much relevant and important, especially in the wake of the recent Boston Marathon tragedy. It appears as though some media outlets are saying too much, and others not enough.
So to what degree are media outlets supposed to distribute pictures and information? There seems to be no simple answer to this question. On one hand, people believe that graphic images need to be shown to portray the severity of a particular situation. On the other hand, there are people that do not wish to see such graphics and believe that a situation can be understood without the aid of graphics. This puts media outlets in a difficult situation as they try to cater to both audiences.
News outlets have control over the content distributed to the public where as the Internet cannot regulate information and graphics in such a fashion. This makes it easy for a person to stumble upon unwanted information while innocently clicking through the web. If one tunes into the news there is a guarantee the information presented will be as accurate as possible in addition to appropriate images for the general public. The Internet is like Russian Roulette; you never know what you’ll get.