News Media & Violence

[takebudday]

In regards to yet another school shooting in Texas.
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Before I start let me clarify, this is not about guns. That whole debate about gun rights is not what I am discussing here, if certain policies could work, is kind of irrelevant to the point of this.

You're most likely reading this because of yet another public shooting which happened. You know how the cycle goes already, it feels as if the United States has been in this cycle for decades and it is only getting worse. I am not talking about gun violence in general but a particular type of violence, a lone gunman against unarmed people in a confined space. This cycle is turning faster, what used to be a year between tragedies has now has gone to months and weeks. What is fueling someone to go out and commit these acts of violence, why is this cycle spinning faster?

What I want to cover is one factor, how the American media covers mass shootings in the first place. Before I do that however I have to explain.

Journalism is a business, for newspapers and news channels to stay afloat they rely on companies purchasing ad-space on their papers or sites. Journalism relies on advertisements just like any YouTube, Twitch, or Twitter channel does. Cable news, newspapers, even new websites, all of them need views. Clicks and subscribers are crucial because when more people watch the news, the more valuable their ad-space becomes. It is easier to convince businesses to advertise if you receive a lot of traffic. Now, let me clarify, there is nothing wrong with that. Newspapers and cable news are businesses and without money, they die. The problem began when people stopped watching and it is all due to the internet.

American media has been in a sort of spiral for the last decade as people began receiving their news online and this left newspapers and cable news in a tough situation. They needed to keep people reading otherwise advertisers would leave. Most newspapers couldn't really adapt to that, and they died as a result. Cable news survived because it is more accessible however the scare of losing viewers to the internet changed the survivors, it changed the way that cable news works.

How do you keep the attention of people who get information online? More and more people are cutting their cable packages and cable news is feeling that effect. So what do they do? Well, they try to make the news interesting and entertaining to watch however you cannot always do that as sometimes interesting things are not happening. This is why it seems like CNN & Fox News are just padding for time. They make up dumb and pointless controversies, they have idiotic arguments with random people who have a certain credential and it is because they are, they are padding for time. Most of what Fox News & CNN does is basically just filler until the Pepsi commercials. Cable news cannot afford to be boring in America. Controversy sells, violence sells, debate sells, tragedy sells, it is horrific events that keep our attention, we need more information to understand tragedy, and cable news fully knows this. This is why once of the greatest jackpots for media is mass shootings.

Shootings provide a who, why, where, and how, they have motives, they have numbers, they have emotion to them. Information unfolds on an hourly basis and the media provides that to viewers but at the same time, viewers are watching advertisements. They contribute to ratings that keep news outlets afloat, so that padding for time takes on a darker side when mixed with shootings.

Cable news which is normally just filler, has something to talk about. Shootings are fantastic ratings boosts and they provide content. For weeks after the shooting, this is why we always see the event talked about in detail. Who the shooter was. This was his face. This was his weapon. This was his social media page. These were his victims. This was his motive. This is where his kill count is in comparison to other mass shootings. This by accident I'd hope, inspires copy-cats. Cable news by milking the tragedy, makes a celebrity out of a creep who nobody knew about before.

Now you say "what kind of sick person would be inspired by that?" Go onto 4Chan & Reddit, many of them do exist... All it takes is one of them to not care about anything anymore and just want to leave that legacy. This is the problem with showing the killers face and motivation, it inspires others. It tells creeps on the edge that they'll get the same treatment for doing these acts. Kill count cements a legacy and the media is keeping score.

No matter if CNN, or Vice, or Fox News talks about the gun debate, no matter how much they say these shootings are horrific, at the end of the day, they are getting content. They are profiting off of this and they ask kids right after a massacre how they feel, because it helps ratings. This effectively created a brand new trend in America that will be a reliable ratings boost every couple of months.

So, limit guns or don't, I am not giving my political opinion however I think that we can agree that something has to be done about how we talk about shootings in America. Unfortunately I do not think we will as for many, tragedy is profitable.

 

[StretchPvP]

I do think that giving criminals attention is a large aspect of their motivation, but you can't do too much about it. All of that information is public record. They report on this stuff because it's what people want. No matter what they report on, they're profiting, and there isn't anything wrong with that. Their business model is journalism, and their business model makes them money, meaning it works. Whether they report on a massive tragedy or not, they get viewers, but when people want to know about these tragedies, they go to these sources. A lot of times, instead of just reporting on these incidents, they also bring in a premise. All networks do this, so there isn't any finger pointing going on. These premises fuel things like "March For Our Lives" and "March For Our Rights", not to say one is right/wrong (I'm not presenting my opinion in this context). We can't forcefully stop networks from reporting in the manner that they are, but what we can do is focus on and support the victims in attempts to take attention away from the criminal who wants to attention.

 

[Choo]

School shootings are so often in the USA you could start a weekly talk show about them

 

[takebudday]

School shootings are so often in the USA you could start a weekly talk show about them

I do think that giving criminals attention is a large aspect of their motivation, but you can't do too much about it. All of that information is public record. They report on this stuff because it's what people want. No matter what they report on, they're profiting, and there isn't anything wrong with that. Their business model is journalism, and their business model makes them money, meaning it works. Whether they report on a massive tragedy or not, they get viewers, but when people want to know about these tragedies, they go to these sources. A lot of times, instead of just reporting on these incidents, they also bring in a premise. All networks do this, so there isn't any finger pointing going on. These premises fuel things like "March For Our Lives" and "March For Our Rights", not to say one is right/wrong (I'm not presenting my opinion in this context). We can't forcefully stop networks from reporting in the manner that they are, but what we can do is focus on and support the victims in attempts to take attention away from the criminal who wants to attention.

Very true unfortunately