School shootings are always a hot topic on the news. Since the Columbine tragedies, the have been many "copycat" shootings at different schools and universities. But, why is the public so afraid that this is going to happen at every school in the US? The CBC conducted a sort or poll in October 2006 to find out how the public viewed all of the coverage from school shootings in order to better their journalistic policies.
The main question at hand is, "is the media to blame for the student killings?" This is a very good question considering all of the coverage that these events gain. Maybe subsequent shootings are the product of watching news casts and getting ideas. No one knows for sure. Some psychologists and other specialists believe that there should be limitations on the coverage of the shooters, their identity, and their motivation. They also believe there should be more coverage on the victims and survivors.
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3 comments:
Cassie,
I am very interested in your topic; I feel it is extremely relevant to the reality of daily life in a continuous 24 hour news cycle.
Your color scheme, additional video, and polling make your site stand out.
I'll be back!
Regards,
Kathy M
This topic is indeed relevant to the world we live in today. It seems to be an open-ended question that is difficult to answer: Are school shootings occuring because of the attention they get from the media? After contemplating this question, I can not come up with a definite opinion. While it is clear that copycat shootings do and will occur, how does one not give these shootings adequate media coverage? The society we live in has been obsessed with news coverage, on most worldy events, since the beginning of television. In fact, it was during Vietnam that America began to "see" the tragedies of the world while sitting in their own living rooms. We learn about presidential campaigns, serial killers, and acts of terrorism, including 911, from media coverage. Seemingly, I don't see how we can expect not to get coverage about school shootings. I think, perhaps, if we demanded school shootings not be publicized, how would our society know when to stop these demands? Wouldn't people then demand to not hear about murders or deaths? Doesn't this inspire others to act similarly? For the average person, negative media coverage allows us to grieve, pray, and be aware of the world we live in, even the negative aspects of it. I suppose for sick-minded people, such as killers and shooters, it gives them incentive to commit these horrific crimes. However, I imagine these individuals would still find ways to terrorize our society, even without the media coverage.
I think this is a very interesting topic. While I'm not terrified that someone is going to come to my school and start shooting everyone, the idea is slightly frightening. I personally don't like guns AT ALL, and my boyfriend has a permit to legally carry a concealed weapon. However, even though he's able to carry a concealed weapon, there are people without permits who are able to purchase guns. That is what scares me.
I agree that the media thrives on scaring people; I think that is their way of working with the government to keep everyone in line, so to speak.
My mom and I were watching the coverage of the VT shootings, and she said "How can they give coverage like this to something in the US when there's thousands of people dying in the war?" She made an interesting point: every day there are people dying in the Middle East, whether they're American soldiers, Iraqi civilians or another society at war but those people get limited attention on the news. However, Americans focus solely on the tragedies at home more than anywhere else. Yes, America is the "world police" in a sense, but if a school shooting kills 3 people, the media blows that up so much more than the numerous civilians who are killed in Iraq.
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