Media Needs To Surpress Information To Stop Mass Shootings

Sociologist suggests shooters may be copying other crimes

The media needs to change how it covers mass shootings, writes Zeynep Tufekci for the Atlantic. Her reasoning: coverage of mass shootings may inspire more shootings, much as coverage of teen suicides in the 1980s inspired more teen suicides.

Tufekci suggests four actions relating to media coverage that may help prevent copycat mass shootings:

First: law enforcement and those who have knowledge of an attack ought to refrain from giving out details on both the method and manner of an attack.

Second: the social media accounts of the killers ought to be pulled.

Third: the name of the killer ought to held for a period of time.

Fourth: the media ought to stop interviewing survivors immediately after a tragedy.

Each step, Tufekci concedes, is an imperfect means of limiting information. But making the facts hard to come by could discourage potential shooters. Currently, all available information is promoted by the media to create a dramatic spectacle, glamorizing the shooting.

Via the Atlantic.

Should the media avoid reporting some aspects of mass shootings?

[kirbstomp1]

The one thing good about news coverage is it allows people to be sympathetic and empathetic to the tragedy that occurs and allows us as a country to come together to support each other.

[jessejaymes]

In almost every case since the advent of internet instant news, in their rush to ratings the media start blabbing thing that turn out to be wildly inaccurate. Like with everything else, the first report is the impact report. People are still claiming Iraq had active WMD's because Bush Initially told them so. They haven't heard a thing since on the subject.

Will people copycat mass killing? They always have. I support an initial report "There has been a shooting in Baytown. As details emerge we will report police official statements" And that's it. The law should read that media can be charged with obstructing justice and felony interference after the fact by anything more until such time as law enforcement chooses to make that statement. The reason i say this is copycat killers tend to emulate the initial grandiose story. Let the authorities get the entire story and lead with "the killer is dead/in custody". Not with "27 people are dead at the hands of blah blah". Stop glorifying scum. Don't even release anything the authorities don't release themselves for at least 72 hours.

[kirbstomp1]

@jessejaymes - I agree. The benefit is you get to see how people can come together. But the media is all about ratings if there were something more important happening they would be covering that instead. Money ruins everything. Even the coverage of tragedies.

[jessejaymes]

@kirbstomp1 People can come together without some airhead bimbo reporter interviewing children after a mass killing. Copycats are sitting right there at the TV getting major excitement over seeing and hearing the horror in the kids face and voice.

[kirbstomp1]

@jessejaymes - oh I agree, I want the news. Not speculation, not added fluff to make it sound better, and not their opinion. Im intelligent enough to make my own opinion. The media disgust me.

[Thunderchicken]

Just give us accurate information without speculation and without the constant barrage of stories and angles.

[nomocrap]

If they were to do that they wouldn't be able to manipulate public opinion. They could never do that because they know what is best for the rest of the country.

[Libertyiskey]

Especially speculation. When I watch the news I want fact based reporting, if I'm watching the market news then I want speculation based upon facts. I can't tell you how many times the story changed because all they were doing was speculating and they're still doing that. And now crazies are just going to try to top this one with something crazier.

[UnCommonBoston]

You don't follow Lindsey Lohan?

[woodtick57]

My favorite story on media speculation...after one of the major coal mine explosions a reperter was talking to a mine safety engineer. She asked, " I know you don't want to speculate at this early date, but what do you think caused the explosion?" the guy looked at her like she was the stupidest person in the world, which at that time she was....

[hwyangel]

That's a very nice idea, but personally I wouldn't bet a quarter on the weather.

[FollowTheMoney]

This has been my position for years. The media may know this to be true, but truth is not the media's motivation, profits are...They won't stop until forced.

[AceLuby]

Exactly, a line needs to be drawn as to what exactly 'free press' is, because right now all you have to do is call yourself a news station and you are automatically covered by the right to 'free press'. Then they go ahead and lie, distort, and embelish for more profit, and every news station is guilty of this EXCEPT PBS. I doubt the founders envisioned this when trying to protect the press from the govt...

[thejimbo]

@AceLuby Of course, Big Bird wouldn't hurt a fly.

[Thunderchicken]

@AceLuby

"every news station is guilty of this EXCEPT PBS"

PBS simply has a different agenda. Or at least they've promoted a big government agenda in the past. I still listen to local PBS radio but haven't taken them too seriously for several years. IMO they're no better (or worse) than mainstream media.

[thejimbo]

@Thunderchicken Didn't you mean to say NPR,(aka "National Propaganda Radio" in right-wing circles)?

[Thunderchicken]

@jamesmitchell

My local radio station is very one sided. I'm surprised when they present a story that isn't heavy on editorial content. They're music selection is great though.

[UnCommonBoston]

We love gossip. Our news cast are full of it, who is getting married, divorced and so on. It follows that want to hear the human element of the crime. We want to make sure nobody around us like the killer -- something we would never know --- The media should not stoop to the lowest level. There people, like me, who don't care. I avoid news on TV and many newspapers. It is crap. I like those laws. That and honesty would change the structure of our mediator. However, they would lose viewers. Since the media cannot provide accurate and factual reporting without the excessive drama and emotion, perhaps it is time for some guidance

[hwyangel]

I think parents should stop letting their children watch so much T.V.

[UnCommonBoston]

Agreed.

[Republican5001]

Agreed

[NormalFlora]

Actually, watching (most) news stories WITH your kids is waaaay better than buying them an x-box and letting them vicariously kill everything in sight in the comfort of their unsupervised bedroom.

[thejimbo]

@NormalFlora Clever, clever!

[MarkJM]

Sadly, Responsible Journalism has died a long time ago. Now, it is all about ratings and how many advertisers they can rake in, all the while the story becomes over-sensationalized. Instead of reporting the facts, we get slant. And while any clear-thinking individual knows the victims should be left alone to grieve, the idiots in the media think it's another ratings grab. It's no longer informative information, it's "infotainment".

[ir0nw0lfe]

finally somebody writes an article that I can make some sense about how to handle mass shootings in the press. Folks, this new fervor to do with gun violence is more about liberals taking advantage of and politicizing tragedy as a rally cry for disarming the American public than it is about stopping gun violence.

[dkpayton]

this has more to do withn obama and the U.N. than it dose the kids. bet you wont hear bthat on fox or msnbc

[Republican5001]

If I want to be entertained I will watch Rachel " i wish i was a dude" madcow, Ed "the Nazi" Schultz or Chris "I can cry because its' my party and I can cry if i want to" Matthews on MSNBC. Objective reporting and not subjective reporting. But even Politix Mary knows that just reporting news is boring. Chrome dipped dub deuces! They spinning!! Dey spinning!

[woodtick57]

maybe we should regulate how the media reports on economic news so as to prevent people from panicking if there is a downturn in the markets? What other things can we not report factually to 'protect' us?

[dances-weebles]

TURN OFF THE NEWS!

Morgan Freeman's brilliant take on what happened in New Town :

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.

It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."

[Libertyiskey]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/...

Still doesn't take away from the truth in the statement.

[coachmongo]

God bless Mr. FREEMAN for showing he has a solid pairand using his pulpit sensibly. Contrast that to Rosie a few years back ponificating about guns while having three (3) armed bodyguards taking her kids to school. Mr. FREEMAN (almost same spelling as FREEDOM) served with distinction in the military when complainers headed to Canada, that's WHY he's got his head n ass wired tight. Why isn't this man in politics???? Morgan for President.

[Calfkiller]

Sensationalizing these events is a major contributing factor in these nutjobs seeing it as a glorious way to commit suicide. People who would otherwise go unnoticed see this as a way to make a name for themselves.

[Jeff_Woehrle]

Hollywood has made killers cool. Gone are the days when good triumphed over evil. Now the evil are made out to the the characters worthy of emulation. Check out any Tarrentino(?) movie. The killing is glorified. The killers are hip, the police are bumbling.

There was plenty of violence in the old John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies. But you never had to guess who was the bad guy and who was good.

[woodtick57]

yeah, it was right in the title, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Wha waaa whaaaa...*gunshot*

[Sharpshooter]

Journalists have been replaced by propagandists with either a personal or corporate ox to gore.

Look at the graphic heading this story.... A ChiCom Type 56 rifle? I'm sure it was chosen because it looks like an AK47 and an AK47 is an "assault rifle" (whatever that means) and Mass Shootings are always done with an assault rifle.

The photo was selected to further demonize "Assault Rifles" and guns in general. Whenever we see a story about CRIME a gun is the graphic image selected... not a guy wearing a mask or a knife... it's a GUN because gun = crime in the liberal propagandists algebra book.

Where journalists like Woodward and Bernstein WORKED a story, today's propagandists just follow the rest of the propagandist herd and stuff a microphone in front of whatever they see. Their time on camera is uses to spout whatever wisdom they heard moments earlier from some other numbskull's mouth.

The best thing we could do for news today is to eliminate everyone in front of the camera and behind the microphone and just let the tape roll.... at least THAT would be honest reporting.

[Dan_Tien]

You are right. It should be an AR-15 in the photo, with a Glock and a Sig Sauer handgun beside it.

[Dan_Tien]

@Sharpshooter All I know is what I read in the news.

"Two 9mm handguns, one made by Glock and the other by Sig Sauer, were recovered inside the school. An AR-15-type rifle also was found at the scene, but there were conflicting reports Friday night whether it had been used in the shooting."

But since you must have been there, maybe you can tell us what the REAL rifle was, or why there should be a photo of a guy wearing a mask with a knife to illustrate a story about mass shootings.

[stepped_in_it]

First: thank you Mr. Mayday for finally giving us "All of the above".
Second: media coverage is ok, but the incessant "one up-man ship" by the media and flooding the airways with these stories is wrong. It causes that 15 minutes of fame attitude from the people who just "want to be remembered". Haven't you ever wondered why people will do some of these shows that just makes them look like fools? Call it "15 minutes of fame syndrome"!(hmmm, wondering if there's drugs that can help those poor fools).
ps: can hear my Mom saying "fools names and fools faces always appear in public places"

[RobertJHarsh]

There are two things wrong with the media today.#1 is they believe they are the fourth branch of guv-ment (if you will) and #2, they are an entertainment industry, not an industry who is suppose to be informing the public.

Let's look at both sides of the media. On the entertainment side, the media is exploiting the child victims and the funerals for maximum ratings gain and revenue sales. All the adverts you see during the breaks are "sponsoring" this tripe. Something else to note that I have noticed during the coverage, there are lot more adverts for female targeted products. Now I am not saying that is on every channel, but I have noticed that on CNN and MSNBC. But it is also telling of whom the media is specifically target, except for most stupid of men, men KNOW guns do not kill people, people kill people. Women tend to be more passive and see objects as "bad things". That is the goal. "Guns" are bad objects, just like a crack pipe or a computer with porn on it. What a shame this type of propaganda flies in the face of feminism and literally assumes all women are stupid. Isn't the media supposed to be promoting women as equals? So why do they think women are stupid.

Moving on...

Now what is the fourth branch doing? Well they are promoting gun control, except Fox but there are some jokers there as well doing some promotion of it. They are hauling on experts whose job titles include: Doctor, Therapist, people with a (D) after their name and ACTOR and ACTRESS. In short, people whom are unqualified nor informed enough to even weigh in on the issue. Dr. Phil is already getting his traction out of this by preempting a rerun this past monday so basically everyone who can is milking the cash from this. That is why it keeps happening over and over again. It's the media, stupid. It is all P&L and everytime one of these tragedies happen, the goal is to make money from it and put policy in place to make sure it happens again. Ever heard of a vicious cycle?

[Heavy-Fed]

Great... you mean the media is going to withhold MORE information??? Maybe we'll just allow them to print only the "official government version"???

[OzarkMtnDad]

One thing I find rather annoying is the 3 - 5 second videos of the chaos & carnage compiled into a 30 second loopclips that they play for hours on end, especially while they are interviewing some sort of expert on the matter. The media doesn't need to surpress information, they need to surpress misinformation.

[lochlomond]

The key words in this question are "media" and "suppress. " If the media begins to censor itself voluntarily it may lead to an executive order or federal legislation to officially censor the Constitutionally protected right to a free press. Yes, the media were like a swarm of vultures as they descended upon Sandy Hook. As horrible as this tragedy was, it is still news and news boosts TV ratings and sells newspapers. From self-censoring to government issued guidelines will eventually make news outlets the propoganda arm of the state. We will only know what the federal government wants us to know.

[KyleMFb]

Yep that's why shootings happen its bc some white entitled punk kid sees it plasterd all over the tv for way to long and think to themselves hey that sounds like fun mabey they'll plaster my name all over the news for weeks and years after I commit mass murder oh goodie sounds fun I'm going to go shoot up my school