Om Bhaskar ('27)
School shootings have shaken America to its core in recent years. Most recently, the Apalachee School shooting in Georgia left four dead, and nine wounded. The high amounts of gun violence in schools are caused by many factors, including easily accessible guns, neglectful parents, and mental health issues. However, one cause that is largely glossed over is the role of the media.
Big media coverage allows news to be spread across the country quickly. Many tragedies get spread much faster and to more people through the media. This includes school shootings. The general idea behind the belief that the media may encourage school shootings is as follows: The media makes a shooting a national story, reporting on the shooter and the events. This causes other similar individuals to be motivated by the original shooter, causing a cycle where gun violence in schools gets far worse than what it would be if the story was less reported on.
According to an article by the American Psychological Association, “media contagion” may be a factor in mass shootings.
In the article, Jennifer B. Johnston, PhD, of Western New Mexico University said, “If the mass media and social media enthusiasts make a pact to no longer share, reproduce or retweet the names, faces, detailed histories or long-winded statements of killers, we could see a dramatic reduction in mass shootings in one to two years.”
AP Psychology teacher Mrs. Cristina Janis offered a similar point of view.
She said,“If they [shooters] are sensationalized, if it seems like they [media companies] are providing positive reinforcement with the shooter, then yes, it might make others realize they get attention for that behavior.”
This might seem like an odd way to go about reducing these incidents. Not reporting on the shooter of many innocent children is probably not the first solution people think of when trying to lower the rates of these crimes. But the evidence shows that not reporting on shooters and making them sensations would help more than hurt.
In studies done by Dr. Adam Lankford of the University of Alabama, it was found that the narcissistic traits, (such as lack of empathy, arrogance, or need for admiration), found in some shooters are part of the reason why they did what they did.
In an article written by the National Center for Health Research, it says, “Lankford also studied 24 mass shooters who openly admitted they wanted fame or contacted the media directly to get it. Studies of mass shooters that are based on available documentation and interviews found that many had narcissistic personalities that crave fame and attention.”
Along with this, Mrs. Janis offered the following thoughts about mental health playing a role in shootings.
She said, “I don’t think they [shooters] all are [mentally ill]. Also, I think it correlates with maturity levels. A lot of times when you see copycatting happening, you’re talking about young, impressionable individuals.”
With this evidence, it is probable that school shootings would happen less often if media channels focused less on the shooter. Experts say that focusing on victims instead would make it so no shooter would gain the fame they want from committing such vicious acts. This could deter people from trying something like this in the first place and would make schools safer. The possibility of the end of the copycat shooter phenomenon could occur, and this would save lives.
Comments