Greetings!
Your thesis will state the topic of your paper. Essentially, everything in your paper will support that thesis. Therefore, it's very important that you know what direction you want your paper to go. You will take a position with your thesis; probably something as general as "The tragedy at Virginia Tech has been shown through many different types of media" won't cut it. Is there a particular type of media you want to focus on? Will you be criticizing media treatment of the event? Will you be talking about how media treatment of these types of tragedies can fuel new ones? Without knowing a little more about the focus of your paper, it's difficult for me to know how to help you, but I'll give you an example. If, for instance, you were going to take the approach that some types of media do a better job than others, you might want to say something like: "The massacre at Virginia Tech elicited a huge amount of media coverage. The various approaches taken by different types of media colored public perception of this event."
I hope this helps give you some ideas!
Thanks,
Sarah, EssayForum.com
Sarah, EssayForum.com