No news is good news.

This sacred scrap of wisdom, which is mumbled by seasoned newsroom veterans and whispered by anxious journalism school pups, isn’t widely accepted by the reading public.

It comes from what the media call the “man bites dog” mentality: When a dog bites a man, that is not news. When a man bites a dog, that is news.

Journalists live by it, and so do you. If every plane that takes off today lands safely, you won’t hear a thing about it. Not one newscast or newspaper across the nation will carry a story starting “no planes crashed today.”

However, if one—just one—of those planes crashes, it’ll be on every television and front page in America. Understand? Bad news is news, no matter how bleak that thought seems.

That’s why the faces of five University of Florida students who were brutally murdered this week showed up on the front page of the news. According to newspaper reports, students are purchasing Mace and deadbolt locks rather than paper and pencils.

The dead have plunged the university’s students into fearing they will be next. Students are planning on taking extended vacations; worried parents are scrambling to the campus to retrieve their children.

However, it’s doubtful anyone would have their eye on the school if the killer had not struck. But it’s a good thing the media do.

Newspaper accounts of the killings have cautioned college students—and others everywhere—that college is not an impenetrable dream world. Security becomes a bigger issue; privacy becomes impossible.

The students have become more aware of their own vulnerability. Believing there is strength in numbers, large groups of people have moved in together, purchasing guns and large dogs. Wary students are casting cautious eyes on every man in Gainseville, fearing that anyone could be the murderer.

University officials, however, have found themselves no better liked than the clandestine killer. Students are demanding the school be closed down until the killer is found; the school agreed that some academic regulations and deadlines wouldn’t be mandated for those who wanted to leave.

The students are demanding heightened security measures rather than trying to keep themselves safe. The university agreed.

While no one can guarantee the murders will stop—neither the university, the students nor newspapers—it’s a safe bet everyone’s being more careful. And, because of the national coverage, students and regular citizens alike are watching their steps.

Obviously, the media probably won’t help find the killer. But the fact that it has warned everyone to take a dose of common sense might prevent the next murder.

Just from the fact these dead young people have become the focus of a shocked nation, it might seem easy to condemn the media. Editors and news directors can expect angered calls of “sensationalism.”