The media likes to make people out to be monsters, if someone does something they disagree with enough they will slander them and do all they can to make the person seem less than human, which is a very dangerous game to play.
I am of the firm belief that a person is always just a person know more know less, know actions can stop you from being a person
Dehumanising:
When you start to say that 'bad' people or criminals aren't people, people believe it. The person in question may themselves start to believe they are a monster and try to fit that mold causing more harm. It also brings a divide where the general public start to believe that they would never be involved in something so bad or they are not capable of doing anything nearly as bad.
When the reality is, a person can be driven to do extreme things and can easily lose grip on reality when they go through extended hardship. It is also important to understand how a person can get to a place in which they are so lost, so that we can do our best to avoid similar situations in the future.
Ostracizing people:
Even on a smaller scale the media picks up stories and just goes crazy with them digging in at small aspects of peoples lives and making them seem to be monsters. Even recently in the UK Ant of the household duo Ant and Dec was ostracized in the media for going through a hard time. Ant (Anthony McPartlin) has been in and out of the media for a good few months now due to his struggle with alcohol addiction and mental health.
Before these stories broke both Ant and Dec where widely considered as good people, hard working family men who were always happy to give a helping hand, however as soon as the media picked up on Ants addictions and mental struggles they began to make out that he was some degenerate who has been lying all these years and he is not who we thought he was.
When in reality he is the same person that he has always been who is struggling with personal issues, not some horrible, lying degenerate.
This breeds a hateful culture and a Us vs Them mentality. Almost because someone is struggling we should get rid of them and push them away so they don't corrupt anyone else, whereas if this people were to be helped and spoken honestly about everyone involved would be able to benefit in some way.
Large scale:
On a larger scale the media will often behave the same way toward entire countries. For example the British and American media outlets often talk about how bad Russia is as a country, saying their government is one of the most oppressive and least excepting of difference in the world. Because of this we should do all we can to shut them down and help the few innocents in the country.
When the reality of the matter is Russia has become a scapegoat a country to blame for everyone else's issues. Not to say that the Russian government and some of the people don't do bad things because they blatantly do and don't hide the fact that they do, but they are no worse than many other countries around the world including America and England.
America and England are notorious for involving themselves in foreign conflicts and starting wars out of fear or to gain land or wealth, yet that is never reported within our countries. However that is another topic for another day.