2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
- 111,974
- 52,246
- 2,290
Yep...new study says the media coverage the killers get....24/7, something we didn't have before the cable news networks......helps to encourage mass shooters..........
New Study Connects Media Coverage to Rise In Mass Shootings
However, two researchers from Western New Mexico University have a fairly simple idea that could theoretically help make a dent:
Stop putting a spotlight on the killers, because that makes it more likely for troubled people to empathize with them.
According to Jennifer Johnston, PhD, who co-authored the study(summarized here) on the effects of media on mass shootings, the idea is rooted in a similar protocol for covering celebrity suicides that was put forth by the psychiatric community in 1997. “It was postulated that suicide might be contagious, probably in the late ’70s, ” Johnston toldLawNewz.com “Studies kind of came and went, and we were trying to replicate whether this was true, and there was enough evidence that people who were on the edge and feeling suicidal, if they saw a celebrity had committed suicide, or someone in their community, it could tip the scales and they could attempt suicide as well.”
In the ’90s, the Center for Disease Control advised the news media to pull back on reporting manner of death when a celebrity committed suicide, and when that policy was enacted, it made a dent in the suicide rate. The functional equivalent for mass shootings, according to Johnston, would be to not fixate on the killer. Johnston and co-author Andrew Joy, BS wrote in the study that “If the mass media and social mediafess enthusiasts make a pact to no longer share, reproduce, or re-tweet the names, faces, detailed histories, or long-winded statements of killers, we could see a dramatic reduction in mass shootings in the span of one to two years.”
New Study Connects Media Coverage to Rise In Mass Shootings
However, two researchers from Western New Mexico University have a fairly simple idea that could theoretically help make a dent:
Stop putting a spotlight on the killers, because that makes it more likely for troubled people to empathize with them.
According to Jennifer Johnston, PhD, who co-authored the study(summarized here) on the effects of media on mass shootings, the idea is rooted in a similar protocol for covering celebrity suicides that was put forth by the psychiatric community in 1997. “It was postulated that suicide might be contagious, probably in the late ’70s, ” Johnston toldLawNewz.com “Studies kind of came and went, and we were trying to replicate whether this was true, and there was enough evidence that people who were on the edge and feeling suicidal, if they saw a celebrity had committed suicide, or someone in their community, it could tip the scales and they could attempt suicide as well.”
In the ’90s, the Center for Disease Control advised the news media to pull back on reporting manner of death when a celebrity committed suicide, and when that policy was enacted, it made a dent in the suicide rate. The functional equivalent for mass shootings, according to Johnston, would be to not fixate on the killer. Johnston and co-author Andrew Joy, BS wrote in the study that “If the mass media and social mediafess enthusiasts make a pact to no longer share, reproduce, or re-tweet the names, faces, detailed histories, or long-winded statements of killers, we could see a dramatic reduction in mass shootings in the span of one to two years.”
