You couldn’t turn on a television or visit a website over the weekend without seeing ongoing coverage of mass shootings, first in El Paso, then in Dayton, Ohio.

The seeming randomness of the locations and the frequency of the violence gives these tragedies a universal feel. It’s a clear example of something you don’t want to see, but from which you cannot look away.

After all, your town could be next.

These are the times — in the moment, as news is breaking — when cable-news networks like CNN and Fox News and MSNBC are virtually indistinguishable from one other, and they all do a good job in extraordinarily difficult situations.

It doesn’t take long for that to change.

Why media must analyze, not amplify

Something similar goes on with social media. The shock of the moment is registered with horror, grief, confusion. But that gives way quickly to strident, divisive grandstanding and argument.

It’s a form of media malpractice. We have worked to become unavoidable, on all of our various platforms and outlets. There really is no escape. And, in the moment, no filters, so things like graphic footage of crime scenes and sketchy screenshots of suspects' social media accounts don't exactly help.

El Paso shooting:'Open season' on Hispanics in America thanks to 'racist in chief' Trump

The media need to analyze, not amplify.

Any major story follows a predictable media pattern. There’s the event itself, which outlets race to cover. Social media has been beneficial in this regard, allowing an immediacy and a perspective that previously wasn’t possible — and that helps establish transparency in reporting and telling stories. It’s news as it happens, and it’s invaluable.

Even the biggest stories slow down at some point. But the news cycle doesn’t, not anymore. It isn’t just the cable-news networks with 24 hours to fill any longer. It’s every media outlet, with no downtime, and too few opportunities to step back and think.

And that’s where we often find trouble.

Gaslighting, partisanship are scary

Legitimate analysis has real value. It helps us figure things out. Gaslighting and partisan water-carrying do not. And there is so much of this now — so many slaughters to sort out, so often — that a numbness sets in. That’s scary.

Maybe we’ll be surprised, but can’t we probably guess what Sean Hannity is going to say? And Rachel Maddow? We know the drill by now.

And that's mainstream media. It gets far worse.

A manifesto was posted on the unmoderated site 8chan before the El Paso shooting. Investigators say it was written by the suspect. It talks of a Hispanic invasion of Texas and rails against immigrants. The site has become a favorite of nationalists and white supremacists — so vile that on Sunday its creator called on it to be shut down.

Media is a mixed bag.

It’s not a catch-all term, as it gathers under that sometimes-misleading name straight-ahead news stories, opinions, entertainment and more. But media, particularly social media, also can be fertile ground for spreading hate, fear, confusion, misinformation — look at how Russia was able to manipulate Facebook in the 2016 presidential election. And look at how the Jussie Smollett racially motivated attack "story" took off, only to run through several iterations of truthfulness (namely, that ultimately he has been accused of staging the attack).

Media make nightmare inescapable

Thanks to the First Amendment, we enjoy great freedom of speech. We don’t always live up to its responsibility. We must try.

Think of it: Two mass shootings, 31 dead, scores more wounded — the weekend felt like a waking nightmare.

The problem, of course, is that there is no waking up from it. Everything is real, sickeningly so. And just when we begin to process one massacre, the unthinkable occurs: another.

Sin of omission:If terrorists attacked Dayton, El Paso and Gilroy, would America do nothing?

Except it’s not unthinkable. Not anymore.

And, in part because of media coverage, it’s inescapable.

Maybe it should be.

As we move along and motives are established and details are revealed, arguments made and repeated, as El Paso and Dayton rightfully occupy so much of our time and our media, one question summarizes the current environment and should haunt us all:

Have we already forgotten Gilroy?

Bill Goodykoontz is a media critic with The Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter: @goodyk