Penn State Making Headlines

Thanks to social media, the Penn State scandal has been the dominating topic of discussion and debate. The media I've mainly heard this story through are twitter and news on television, and even though the attention seems to be more on the people involved rather than the act committed, at least the media has helped bring out an important issue. Unfortunately the issue should have been revealed a long time ago but better late than never. I feel that the media can intersect with about almost anything, but when it comes to people with power, especially involved with some deviant act, the media will cover it as soon as possible. The media can influence the way people think about the situation as well since they decide what to show from the information they retrieved.

Personally I think it's sad that the people who knew about the issue for so long didn't try harder to stop it. Is your own reputation more important than a child's life? I feel like the issue of child sexual abuse is getting more attention but only because of the big powerful names of Penn State, Paterno and Sandusky, which is sad. If it were some random guy doing this and it ended up on the news, the air time of the story would probably be a couple days but this story has been going on for so long and will continue to be. Why do we have to wait for some big shot name to be involved with this kind of scandal before we start to get more involved with organizations that help victims of this issue? And it's sad that people are turning this situation into a sort of joke, like #sandusky is now used as a verb. "why you gotta Sandusky the kid?"

Child sexual abuse is such a serious and sensitive issue and shouldn't be something looked at so lightly. Though Penn State, Paterno and Sandusky are getting lots of attention, I hope this case really helps people think more about life, their morals, and learning from other peoples' mistakes.

Jan Redondo

KIN 338I - Section 1