The Media is an Accomplice in Public Shootings

[finglobes]

Media coverage has been sensationalizing the shooting in ways that would make it attractive to other sketchy heads looking to make an impact. There are too many "vigils" and tributes. The NFL - and especially the NY Giants/Jets and patriots - focusing on shooting is all wrong. The way media is beating this story to death and over-sensationalizing it and leveraging it for ratings and politics is all wrong.

Below is an article about media sensationalism. The problem reminds me of suicide contagion and the way the CDC advised media to restrain coverage in order to not inflame problem.

"The Media is an Accomplice in Public Shootings: A Call for a "Stephen King" Law"

This week, I watched in horror with most of America, as yet another person unleashed a furry of bullets in a busy Portland, Oregon, mall killing two and injuring others. But my horror was twofold. The first misery came as I heard the names and numbers of victims and thought about the pain they and their families will endure for the rest of their lives. The second dose came as I held my breath, hoping and praying the media wouldn’t amplify the violence.

But they did.

They did exactly what they needed to do to influence the next perpetrator to lock and load.
1.They named the shooter.
2.They described his characteristics.
3.They detailed the crime.
4.They numbered the victims.
5.They ranked him against other “successful” attackers.

Public shootings are a contagion. And the media are consistent accomplices in most every one of them...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephg...blic-shootings-a-call-for-a-stephen-king-law/


Here are some of the CDC guidelines for media and suicide contagion:

"ASPECTS OF NEWS COVERAGE THAT CAN PROMOTE SUICIDE CONTAGION"

Engaging in repetitive, ongoing, or excessive reporting of suicide in the news.

Providing sensational coverage of suicide.

Reporting "how-to" descriptions of suicide.

Glorifying suicide or persons who commit suicide.

News coverage is less likely to contribute to suicide contagion when reports of community expressions of grief (e.g., public eulogies, flying flags at half-mast, and erecting permanent public memorials) are minimized. Such actions may contribute to suicide contagion by suggesting to susceptible persons that society is honoring the suicidal behavior of the deceased person, rather than mourning the person's death. "

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00031539.htm

 

[Geosurface]

I agree completely. I don't endorse any infringement upon free speech but I would like to see a lot of pressure put on media to come to an agreement amongst themselves.

 

[feralkid]

I blame the media, too.

Ten years ago, I'd have blamed Marilyn Manson.

Or Rap Music, or whatever was popular to do.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I agree completely. I don't endorse any infringement upon free speech but I would like to see a lot of pressure put on media to come to an agreement amongst themselves.

"Pressure" brought by whom, and through what mechanism? What would this "agreement" look like?

I frankly don't see it as realistic to expect the media to refrain from covering the details of an incident like this, when it is a matter of such public interest. The idea that the media would not identify the shooter, the number of victims, etc. is really asking them to disregard their core function and responsibilities. This is not like suicide, where it may well make sense (and is often actually done) to refrain from publicizing the means of a person's death. I have not seen any coverage of this particular tragedy that I felt was gratuitously sensationalizing it.

 

[Geosurface]

"Pressure" brought by whom, and through what mechanism? What would this "agreement" look like?

I frankly don't see it as realistic to expect the media to refrain from covering the details of an incident like this, when it is a matter of such public interest. The idea that the media would not identify the shooter, the number of victims, etc. is really asking them to disregard their core function and responsibilities. This is not like suicide, where it may well make sense (and is often actually done) to refrain from publicizing the means of a person's death. I have not seen any coverage of this particular tragedy that I felt was gratuitously sensationalizing it.

*shrug*

I'm just saying I think it could help if the major news networks met together, and issued a statement that from now on mass shootings would only be given the most cursory coverage on their websites. No TV coverage, no great detail given... remove the fame-seeking motive.

Is this realistic? No, not really.

So instead I suggest we just, as individuals, accept that shit happens.

 

[waggy]

Media coverage has been sensationalizing the shooting in ways that would make it attractive to other sketchy heads looking to make an impact. There are too many "vigils" and tributes. The NFL - and especially the NY Giants/Jets and patriots - focusing on shooting is all wrong. The way media is beating this story to death and over-sensationalizing it and leveraging it for ratings and politics is all wrong.

Below is an article about media sensationalism. The problem reminds me of suicide contagion and the way the CDC advised media to restrain coverage in order to not inflame problem.

"The Media is an Accomplice in Public Shootings: A Call for a "Stephen King" Law"

This week, I watched in horror with most of America, as yet another person unleashed a furry of bullets in a busy Portland, Oregon, mall killing two and injuring others. But my horror was twofold. The first misery came as I heard the names and numbers of victims and thought about the pain they and their families will endure for the rest of their lives. The second dose came as I held my breath, hoping and praying the media wouldn’t amplify the violence.

But they did.

They did exactly what they needed to do to influence the next perpetrator to lock and load.
1.They named the shooter.
2.They described his characteristics.
3.They detailed the crime.
4.They numbered the victims.
5.They ranked him against other “successful” attackers.

Public shootings are a contagion. And the media are consistent accomplices in most every one of them...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephg...blic-shootings-a-call-for-a-stephen-king-law/


Here are some of the CDC guidelines for media and suicide contagion:

"ASPECTS OF NEWS COVERAGE THAT CAN PROMOTE SUICIDE CONTAGION"

Engaging in repetitive, ongoing, or excessive reporting of suicide in the news.

Providing sensational coverage of suicide.

Reporting "how-to" descriptions of suicide.

Glorifying suicide or persons who commit suicide.

News coverage is less likely to contribute to suicide contagion when reports of community expressions of grief (e.g., public eulogies, flying flags at half-mast, and erecting permanent public memorials) are minimized. Such actions may contribute to suicide contagion by suggesting to susceptible persons that society is honoring the suicidal behavior of the deceased person, rather than mourning the person's death. "

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00031539.htm

agreed. I really really beleive this is a major reason. fuck turn on cnn/fox/cnbc/whatever any of t he 24 hour damn news channels. guess what will be on (or within 5 minuts) this damn shooting. it's on 24/7 for weeks.

they give it a flashy intro, music, a story name.

then they flash the shooters face on TV every hour.

A person with a mental illness sees this as a way to be famous. to be known and t hink they can go out in a blaze of "glory".

 

[Jhhnn]

Gawd. The duh-version in the OP is epic.

The media is complicit only in creating a culture glorifying gun violence, & promoting gun ownership through fear.

How many murders are there on TV every day? How much pandering to fear can we identify as contributing to gun ownership? Why did every Right Wing dipshit in America rush out to buy more guns when Obama was elected, and even more when re-elected?

Fear is the answer. You'd think murder mayhem rape & home invasion were as common & justifiable as grocery shopping if you fell victim to it.

 

[Jhhnn]

*shrug*

I'm just saying I think it could help if the major news networks met together, and issued a statement that from now on mass shootings would only be given the most cursory coverage on their websites. No TV coverage, no great detail given... remove the fame-seeking motive.

Is this realistic? No, not really.

So instead I suggest we just, as individuals, accept that shit happens.

Like this?

 

[Geosurface]

Like this?

Funny comic but one thing I disagree with vehemently in how it's worded is that the penguin claims the massacres are a price "the rest of us" have to pay.

They're a price those of us who value individual freedom are also paying. We find these events just as tragic as anti-gun people do.

Or is it always a game of who can react most dramatically and they win the "I think it's a tragedy" contest?

If that's the case, then the person whose teenage child was just killed by a drunk driver and now wants both cars and alcohol banned because of their personal loss and the fact that they aren't thinking straight, trumps all of the rest of us who aren't in favor of those extreme measures.

Just because someone has a more measured, rational response, doesn't mean they aren't deeply impacted by the tragedy or that they don't sympathize greatly with it's victims.

 

[monovillage]

From a blogger that was present when a friend was murdered at school. Her memories of the media.
http://mamabythebay.com/2012/12/14/to-the-media-regarding-newtown/

To The Media, Regarding Newtown

Dear Members of the Media,

By now you’ve probably heard the small wave of outrage that is condemning you for interviewing the children of Sandy Hook Elementary School. You already know that furious parents across the country feel that it’s inappropriate to shove a microphone in the face of a traumatized 8 year old.

But have you ever wondered why?

It’s because WE WILL REMEMBER.

I remember.

I was 14 when my friend Mike was murdered, at my school. Violence rushed through our campus like a lightening bolt, bringing children to the ground in an unexpected, startling shock. This was a few short years before Columbine. This was before cell phones. Before Twitter. Before we could check on each other through FaceBook or pull up CNN on an iPad.

I remember running out of the gymnasium, swooped up in a current of other children, only to be met by another wave of familiar faces, running back towards us. “Mike!” they cried. Faces frozen, cheeks inflamed, out of breath. We could see the ambulances down the street, back doors thrown open, half-hidden by fences and bushes. The children ran. We stumbled, we wandered, we ended up in the hallway by our lockers. Our cheerleading coach, who was never incredibly warm and fuzzy, came barreling towards us. “What are you doing?” she asked. “We’re getting our things, we’re going to call our parents, we need to go to the hospital to be with Mike” we said. We were fueled by teenage innocence, and we had no idea it would be the last drop of naivete that we were allowed. “You’re not.” she whispered, as she put her hand on my shoulder. “You need to go back to the gym. The school is in lockdown. You can’t go to the hospital.”

I can’t remember if she told us then that Mike had died. I can’t remember how I found my best friend Tori, but I know that I did. I can’t remember how I ended up on the front lawn of the school, surrounded by friends who were crying into their hands, their backpacks strewn across the sidewalk, the swirl of police lights shining down on us like sunshine.

But you know what I do remember?YOU were there. YOU, with your enormous video cameras. YOU, with your microphones poking into the bubble of grief that grew bigger as we waited for our parents to find us. YOU, with your horrible questions about what had happened, had we known Mike, had we seen anything? No parents there yet, just children. No teachers, just children. And you.

Some of us screamed at you to leave us alone. Some of us answered your sick questions, because you were the grown-ups, and we were the kids. I don’t even know how you got there so fast, before our parents, before anyone else could swoop us back inside and ask you to leave. But there you were, with your vans and your lights, asking us how it felt to know that another child had been killed. How it felt to be scared. How it felt to wonder about the names of everyone else, to be desperately hoping for more information, while feeling terrified about what the truth would really be.

I remember you. I remember your names. I remember what channel you were from. I remember that you filled the parking lot at Mike’s funeral. You stood in a line outside of the door, devouring the footage of crying football players running away from the service, like rabid hungry wolves. You replayed the video of Mike being loaded into the ambulance, over and over and over again, even when people wrote to you and asked you to stop.

And you were there today, in Newtown. Asking children who can barely spell their names what it felt like to have the trajectory of their life changed in a single morning.

How the fuck do you think it feels?

They will remember you. They will remember feeling violated by you. Their parents will regret that the veil of shock blurred their vision enough to allow you to interview their children.

Our country is struggling with finding the answers we need to keep our babies safe. We are struggling with how we feel about guns, and how we feel about mental health care. Report on that.

But the 14 year old child in me begs you, begs you, to not ask children to report on what it felt like. What it sounded like. How scary it was.

I can tell you for sure, that they will live that trauma every single day. They will be 34, sitting in the car with their husband outside their little boy’s preschool, crying silently at the news reports. They will be transported immediately back to 14 years old, and how cold the grass felt under their feet. They will feel the breath of their friends on their neck as they followed each other blindly back into the gymnasium. And they will see your face, foreign and imploring, your voice pleading and fake.

This is a story for only the grown-ups to tell, while the children focus on healing. The path out of that school takes years, and it is a private journey that should only be walked with friends.

 

[AnyMal]

Gawd. The duh-version in the OP is epic.

The media is complicit only in creating a culture glorifying gun violence, & promoting gun ownership through fear.

How many murders are there on TV every day? How much pandering to fear can we identify as contributing to gun ownership? Why did every Right Wing dipshit in America rush out to buy more guns when Obama was elected, and even more when re-elected?

Fear is the answer. You'd think murder mayhem rape & home invasion were as common & justifiable as grocery shopping if you fell victim to it.

Familiar story. We blamed heavy metal in the 80's, rap in the 90's, Internet in 00's, and I suppose it's time TV shared in on the blame as well. Who are we going to blame on next?

 

[boochi]

Familiar story. We blamed heavy metal in the 80's, rap in the 90's, Internet in 00's, and I suppose it's time TV shared in on the blame as well. Who are we going to blame on next?

All of those things along with video games are the problem. Parents not being able to discipline their kids for fear of being labeled a child abuser is the problem. Why else the rise of mass shootings since 1980? Guns are harder to obtain than they were then. Young, developing minds can't process this information.

 

[Incorruptible]

Gawd. The duh-version in the OP is epic.

The media is complicit only in creating a culture glorifying gun violence, & promoting gun ownership through fear.

How many murders are there on TV every day? How much pandering to fear can we identify as contributing to gun ownership? Why did every Right Wing dipshit in America rush out to buy more guns when Obama was elected, and even more when re-elected?

Fear is the answer. You'd think murder mayhem rape & home invasion were as common & justifiable as grocery shopping if you fell victim to it.

You lose any credibility when you resort to these attacks and generalization statements.

 

[Subyman]

The backlash for the media covering these events happens every time and it is a pretty tired argument that people seem to feel clever making for whatever reason. "Sensationalizing" a elementary school massacre is pretty much impossible, its about as crazy a story as anyone can imagine.

Parents around the US and the world need to know details about this event, and knowledge needs to be spread so people are better able to either make a change in their life (such as homeschooling) or push for change within their community/government.

Burying the story is not the answer. I'm against some of the things the media did during their coverage of this event such as interviewing small children and plastering the wrong guy's face on the news, but overall I think it would be against their journalistic duties not to report the details that are released to the public.

 

[Alex C]

From a blogger that was present when a friend was murdered at school. Her memories of the media.
http://mamabythebay.com/2012/12/14/to-the-media-regarding-newtown/

That's awful. They should absolutely not be allowed to interview children, especially right after the incident and without their guardians present.

 

[Jhhnn]

You lose any credibility when you resort to these attacks and generalization statements.

Whereas you've never had any, and likely never will.

 

[Jhhnn]

Funny comic but one thing I disagree with vehemently in how it's worded is that the penguin claims the massacres are a price "the rest of us" have to pay.

They're a price those of us who value individual freedom are also paying. We find these events just as tragic as anti-gun people do.

Or is it always a game of who can react most dramatically and they win the "I think it's a tragedy" contest?

If that's the case, then the person whose teenage child was just killed by a drunk driver and now wants both cars and alcohol banned because of their personal loss and the fact that they aren't thinking straight, trumps all of the rest of us who aren't in favor of those extreme measures.

Just because someone has a more measured, rational response, doesn't mean they aren't deeply impacted by the tragedy or that they don't sympathize greatly with it's victims.

You're extremely offended by the way I phrased that, aren't you?

Of course you are, you delicate flower, you.

 

[SheHateMe]

Whereas you've never had any, and likely never will.

LOL. Incorruptible is always the pot calling the kettle black.

 

[waggy]

The backlash for the media covering these events happens every time and it is a pretty tired argument that people seem to feel clever making for whatever reason. "Sensationalizing" a elementary school massacre is pretty much impossible, its about as crazy a story as anyone can imagine.

Parents around the US and the world need to know details about this event, and knowledge needs to be spread so people are better able to either make a change in their life (such as homeschooling) or push for change within their community/government.

Burying the story is not the answer. I'm against some of the things the media did during their coverage of this event such as interviewing small children and plastering the wrong guy's face on the news, but overall I think it would be against their journalistic duties not to report the details that are released to the public.

bury it? no. they need to report it. But they don't need to do what they do now. turn on CNN i bet they are talking about it and will flash the shooters face within 10 minutes.

that is the issue. the 24/7 coverage.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

The backlash for the media covering these events happens every time and it is a pretty tired argument that people seem to feel clever making for whatever reason. "Sensationalizing" a elementary school massacre is pretty much impossible, its about as crazy a story as anyone can imagine.

Parents around the US and the world need to know details about this event, and knowledge needs to be spread so people are better able to either make a change in their life (such as homeschooling) or push for change within their community/government.

Burying the story is not the answer. I'm against some of the things the media did during their coverage of this event such as interviewing small children and plastering the wrong guy's face on the news, but overall I think it would be against their journalistic duties not to report the details that are released to the public.

I'm pretty convinced it's just a ruse by the rightwing & gun lobby to try to shift and limit the negative attitude events like these generate on the gun debate. That's not to say the media isn't shit exactly for some of the reasons you posted though.

Edit: I also don't believe "sensationalizing" the story is going to push anyone to take any similar action that wasn't on the verge of doing so anyway. It may move the timing up, but it's not the catalyst.

 

[alzan]

All of those things along with video games are the problem. Parents not being able to discipline their kids for fear of being labeled a child abuser is the problem. Why else the rise of mass shootings since 1980? Guns are harder to obtain than they were then. Young, developing minds can't process this information.

Sorry but the millions of kids, young adults and adults who play video games, watch violent TV and movies and listen to certain genres of music that don't go out and commit mayhem in elementary schools, movie cinemas, college campuses, etc. disagree with you.

I think it's your undeveloped mind that can't process information.

 

[DrPizza]

All of those things along with video games are the problem. Parents not being able to discipline their kids for fear of being labeled a child abuser is the problem. Why else the rise of mass shootings since 1980? Guns are harder to obtain than they were then. Young, developing minds can't process this information.

bury it? no. they need to report it. But they don't need to do what they do now. turn on CNN i bet they are talking about it and will flash the shooters face within 10 minutes.

that is the issue. the 24/7 coverage.

It's also how it's reported. It goes beyond what happened, where, how, who. It glorifies the murderer - it makes it seem like an accomplishment: "and this moves into the #2 all-time most murders in a school spot, right behind... and a little ahead of ..."

 

[Engineer]

If that's the case, then the person whose teenage child was just killed by a drunk driver and now wants both cars and alcohol banned because of their personal loss and the fact that they aren't thinking straight, trumps all of the rest of us who aren't in favor of those extreme measures.

Link or story or anything to a single person who wants or has ever wanted a car to be banned because of DUI?

That's not just "hogwash"...it's horseshit.

By the way, it's amazing that it's all about personal responsibility until something happens that might make something you like look bad, then it's somebody else's fault. Funny how that happens......

 

[Geosurface]

Link or story or anything to a single person who wants or has ever wanted a car to be banned because of DUI?

That's not just "hogwash"...it's horseshit.

I was referring to the feelings people have in the depths of their grief, especially when it's fresh. If any single person who has ever lost someone to a drunk driver even momentarily thought that, it's enough to make my point. That's all I was referring to. The idea that the most extreme emotional reaction should be the standard by which we set law, which is of course stupid.

By the way, it's amazing that it's all about personal responsibility until something happens that might make something you like look bad, then it's somebody else's fault. Funny how that happens......

What are you talking about? Really, I want to understand the point you're making here. Help me out. Whose fault am I saying what is?

 

[Engineer]

What are you talking about? Really, I want to understand the point you're making here. Help me out. Whose fault am I saying what is?

Not you in particular...but the group of people who claim personal responsibility always blame someone else for causing the problems when it goes against something that they are for or like. It's never just the fault of the asshole that did the deed (or so it seems). It couldn't be this guy's fault, he learned it from watching the media coverage of past massacres.