Posted on 02/15/2018 8:32:29 AM PST by Az Joe
As a sociologist, I am increasingly concerned that the tornado of media coverage that swirls around each such mass killing, and the acute interest in the identity and characteristics of the shooter -- as well as the detailed and sensationalist reporting of the killer's steps just before and during the shootings -- may be creating a vicious cycle of copycat effects
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Good luck! If it bleeds it leads. First rule of journalism.
It is also made worse by the pavlovian response of some politicians to immediately point to the inanimate piece of metal as the root of all evil.
Rarely do I agree with Vox...................
The media wants 24/7 coverage because it helps them push for gun control. Ask CBS why they added "Newtown, CT." on their list of cities with HI/LO temps for the day. Does anyone care what the temp in Newtown is OR does the media want to keep focus on these incidents so as to push gun control. Shep Smith spent the whole day recounting all the school shooting for the past 15 years, memorializing the killers. sheesh, it's all about politics.
We all know that crap is king.
The number one mantra of newspapers has always been..”If it bleeds, it leads!”
If there is nothing happening that day, it is referred to as a “Dead cat day.” You throw a dead cat in front of a politician and report on his reaction.
... As I look up and see the killers face plastered all over FoxNews.
I actually agree with this. The more school shootings that we have, the more it gets ingrained into the psyche of others with problems that they can go out in a ‘blaze of glory’.
If anyone wants to pass laws, I think they should pass one where it’s illegal to use the name of any minor who commits capital violence against other minors in any reporting.
...and before you jump on the first amendment band wagon, consider the fact that the right to privacy trumps the right to free speech in many ways. This one could be written such that the right to the privacy of victims against their assailant. Seeking a kind of ignoble fame should not be the right of an attacker and the privacy of the victims should be considered.
Not only are we giving them fame, we are rolling out the red carpet to them.
Here’s our kids. Totally unprotected. Come get them, then watch us cry about it while we do anything and everything other than solve the problem.
We are a nation of total idiots.
We need small neighborhood schools.
It’s harder to kill kids you’ve known all your life.
That’s what stopped the streaking phenomenon in the 70s. The media agreed they wouldn’t publicize any more streaking incidents and it just went away.
I suspect somewhere there are mass murderer trading cards, like baseball cards.
Ethel quit looking.
My thoughts too - Vox managed to get one right for a change.
Put guns at any gathering and announce it. The shootings will stop.
That was such a funny song
“Thats what stopped the streaking phenomenon in the 70s. The media agreed they wouldnt publicize any more streaking incidents and it just went away.”
~~~~~~
Makes perfect sense.
People make complex decisions and even people on the verge of rage self destruction do too. Before school shooting because a phenom of it’s own in the social psyche, kids with problems commited their acts against themselves (which is tragic enough, but not the same on a social scale) or turned their rage first against specific targets of their anger. The idea of mowing down innocent would probably have been distasteful too all except the most psychotic, but those are found early. Now you are adding a new factor into the soup of those with antisocial/depression problems above a sense of hopelessness and victimization. There is the extremely morbid concept of achieving a glorious revenge, and the media aids and abets that very process.
I’ve been waiting for this
I have been waiting for this
All you people in TV land
I will wake up your empty shells
Peak-time viewing blown in a flash
As I burn into your memory cells
‘cause I’m alive
Peter Gabriel - Family Snapshot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh9wIVZBhT0
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