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Breaking news from Dayton, Ohio, a second mass shooting in the United States in less than 24 hours.

Welcome to season 7 episode 156 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

Well today we have the somber task of examining a horror which has become all too common in the US. Mass shootings.

But unlike the news media's particular flavor of coverage, we'll examine this phenomenon with the goal of uncovering the responsibility that the media has in how it reports what it chooses to report.

A particular incident or set of incidents just this past year brought this topic to light.

Two mass shootings, taking place within hours of each other, both covered or not covered in completely different ways by the same news outlets, which pretty much exposed the apparent biases inherent in each major news network.

If it wasn't obvious before, this set of incidents shined a light on what each network decided was newsworthy and what they decided was not.

We'll take a look at each and give you all of the information and the respect to make your own choices on just exactly what happened.

We're joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Michelle Carcell. Stay with us.

In an era where most of us barely need to move our heads to locate a digital screen of some sort, media has more of a massive impact than ever before.

When we think of the news media in particular, the term no longer encompasses just the newspaper, radio, and news stations on television.

It has expanded to include social media like Facebook and Twitter, where many in the younger generations absorb the bulk of their news.

It can include apps that aren't even quite considered social media like Buzzfeed, Reddit, and Shockingly even Snapchat, none of which were ever created with the intention of spreading national and international news stories to the masses, yet they've unfortunately evolved into news media outlets.

News stations are playing on a non-stop cycle in doctors offices, diners, bars, and the workplace break room.

Legally scrolling through Facebook has become impossible without encountering a political video or news story.

Many modern households no longer even have cable television or bothered to watch the news on TV, but that doesn't mean a lowered intake of news media in general.

Unless you live under a rock, you'll hear about the big stories happening in the news every day.

Try as you might, it is virtually unavoidable.

The balance between America's free press and the responsibility of the press to report with good ethics has always been a struggle.

The 24-hour news cycle has essentially become a money-making enterprise.

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