By MAX RINGSGWANDL

In three school shootings this year, eight victims – six girls in Pennsylvania, a principal in Wisconsin and a 16-year-old girl in Colorado – have been killed. Two of the three shooters committed suicide.

As with any dramatic story, journalists reported extensively about the recent school shootings. They visited the crime scenes, talked to eyewitnesses and relatives of victims, and consulted experts.

But the challenge is finding a balance between the duty to report and the danger of sensationalizing the story, which can inspire copycat shootings, media experts said.

Journalists often write stories about school shootings too quickly because everyone is competing and “feeding the beast,” said Victor Greto, a reporter for The News Journal in Delaware.

Days after a particular shooting, journalists have more time to research and explain what happened by writing so-called “think pieces,” he said.

Ronald D. Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center, a California advocacy group, said in an e-mail that “sometimes in the rush to be first to report, important information is missing.”

Overall, Stephens said, coverage of the recent school shootings has been reasonably fair.

Some critics point toward media coverage in which some journalists seek scapegoats instead of digging deeper for more complex explanations.

Blogger “Trench Reynolds,” who writes against shootings on thetrenchcoat.com, said he uses a pseudonym because of the threats he received from admirers of school shooters. While he said the media coverage has improved since the Columbine massacre of 1999, journalists still are too fast in blaming someone for a shooting.

Reynolds had a personal experience with inaccurate media coverage when he found one of his poems on the front page of The Washington Post on the day after the Columbine massacre. Since 1997, Reynolds has published heavy-metal lyrics on his Web site.

After The Post quoted his poem titled “Death of a Jester,” implying there was some connection between the killers and his Web site, Reynolds received threatening e-mails.

As Reynolds states on his blog, the lyrics were about him getting more professional at his job and had no connection to Columbine. The journalists had used his lyrics without giving any explanation.

Washington Post reporter Peter Slevin said he and a colleague had just three hours to write about the recent shooting at an Amish school in Pennsylvania.

When writing a story, journalists are always looking for answers; good journalists don’t look for scapegoats, he said.

Slevin said it’s important to put each shooting into perspective: Is there a pattern? Was it an isolated incident? In this society, journalists need to publish what they know, Slevin said, even though their reports may inspire copycats. “Not publishing would be the bigger problem,” he said.

To find the right balance in a story, despite pressures to get it first, Slevin encourages journalists to remember their training. They should ask eyewitnesses and experts about their perceptions and opinions.

“And if there’s not an obvious conclusion, do not draw it,” Slevin said.

Despite covering the Pennsylvania shooting on a tight deadline, Slevin and his colleague called and quoted several officials and experts to back up the story.

In Slevin’s view, some journalists tend to call only the sources they already know. “It’s very easy to be lazy,” but it’s important to talk to different experts, Slevin said.

Danny Ledonne, 24, developed and published “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” a role-playing computer game based on the 1999 Columbine school shooting. The shooting left 12 students and a teacher dead, and two dozen others injured. When the game starts, the player slips into the role of one of the two teenage shooters, Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold.

Ledonne said he has talked to more than 50 journalists who wrote about school shootings and has been the subject of many stories. Ledonne welcomes journalists who talk to him before writing about him.

“Anyone who contacted me did a better job,” he said in an interview.

The game’s April 2005 release didn’t draw media attention until May 2006, Ledonne said. Until then, Ledonne had used the alias, “Columbine,” but a friend of one of the Columbine survivors revealed his identity.

Since then, the story for most journalists, Ledonne said, was simply that a video game based on Columbine existed. It was less about the game’s actual content and design, he said.

The first part of the game is based on potential causes of the shootings. The second part takes place in hell. Finally, after its characters fight their way through hell, the game returns to Columbine High School where a press conference addresses the tragedy.

In fact, Ledonne said, the game and its plain graphics are less violent and bloody as famous first-person shooter games like Doom.

In September, media turned again to Ledonne and his game after it became public that Kimveer Gill, who killed one girl and injured 19 other people at Dawson College in Montreal before he committed suicide, had been playing “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!”

Ledonne recalled that within 12 hours of the shooting, several journalists called him, and one of them even asked him if he felt responsible for the shooting.

According to Ledonne, musicians like Marilyn Manson and some video games or online platforms are easier targets for journalists looking for a scapegoat because they are less socially accepted media forms such as books or films.

On the other hand, there are “sacred cows” in the culture, Ledonne said, that people don’t question.

In contrast to the accusations toward social networking site MySpace.com, “nobody blames public parks for child molesting,” Ledonne said.

Ledonne said he had varying experiences with journalists. Based on the interviews he gave and the stories he read, Ledonne estimates 10 to 15 percent of journalists who wrote about his game have actually played it.

Reporting about school shootings is not easy for journalists because of the time pressure they work under and the fact that some of the shootings are difficult to describe and understand, experts said.

In addition to problems in covering such an event, some people question the effects of extensive media coverage.

Stephens, the school-safety expert, said one positive result of the coverage is advice given to schools about how to deal with a crisis.

On the negative side, “such coverage often brings the ‘crazies’ out of the woodwork and provides more devious ideas for perpetrators,” Stephens said.

In addition, ongoing media reports about deadly school shootings make some parents and their children worry about school safety.

Jason Ziedenberg of the Justice Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, said the concerns among parents, teachers and students are not proportional to the real threat.

“School is one of the safest places where young people can be,” Ziedenberg said in an interview.

Recent U.S. Department of Justice data shows students are twice as likely to be victims of serious violence outside of school.

These numbers, however, don’t affect journalists’ responsibility.

Blogger Reynolds said he wants to educate parents so they get more involved in their children’s lives and their online activities, in the hopes of preventing more deadly rampages.

Though Reynolds observed some improvement in media’s coverage of school shootings since the Columbine massacre, he said reporters should think even more about a very basic rule: “Get the facts straight before playing it big,” he said.