"Media Contagion" Is Factor in Mass Shootings

[OldState]

In anticipation of DNC taking the House and the 2020 presidential campaign I’m obviously anticipating a ton of anti gun propaganda like most of you are.
An important point that almost no one seems to make is the media’s role in the growing frequency of “mass shootings”. It seems that there are several papers out there that talk about this. Obviously the media and the left will choose to avoid but it should be something that every gun owner should be well versed in.

There are several articles but I’ll start with this one. When examining any phenomena I thinks it’s important to consider the constants and the variables. Guns have been with us for a long time. Agenda driven 24/7 news coverage hasn’t.

http://www.center4research.org/copy-cats-kill/

From the APA https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/08/media-contagion.aspx

[JSantoro]

This doesn’t belong in AR GD. Moved.

[OldState]

This doesn’t belong in AR GD. Moved.

Sorry! Thanks

[Doc Safari]

No big news here. The MSM have a saying, "If it bleeds, it leads." They have a vested interest in tragedy that shocks and disgusts.

The liberal gun grabbers, too, love mass shootings because they furthers their agenda. (Yes, I said it).

Don't be fooled by a bunch of weepy, feel-good rhetoric about gun safety or the need to protect our children. The agenda is to disarm everyone so they can usher in a socialist utopia where everyone is equally poor and no one can revolt because they will have no weapons.

And that in a nutshell is what the looney left is all about concerning mass shootings and gun control.

[OldState]

No big news here. The MSM have a saying, "If it bleeds, it leads." They have a vested interest in tragedy that shocks and disgusts.

The liberal gun grabbers, too, love mass shootings because they furthers their agenda. (Yes, I said it).

Don't be fooled by a bunch of weepy, feel-good rhetoric about gun safety or the need to protect our children. The agenda is to disarm everyone so they can usher in a socialist utopia where everyone is equally poor and no one can revolt because they will have no weapons.

And that in a nutshell is what the looney left is all about concerning mass shootings and gun control.

I don’t think this is brought up nearly enough...hardly at all. I have always thought the #1 reason we have seen this phenomenon for the past 20 years is media coverage. Every new batch of saturation coverage breeds the next copy cat shooter. Problem is how do you get the media to acknowledge it?

I think this needs to be brought up in every discussion on this topic. If I was a politician being interviewed I would harp on this and encourage all my colleagues to do as well. I would reference the studies by the American Psychological Association ad nauseum ... other studies as well.

[Doc Safari]

There is a movement to make it illegal to release the shooter's name after any massacre. The theory is that these assholes go on shooting sprees because infamy is their only hope for a meaningful life and keeping their name a secret robs them of that.

[OldState]

There is a movement to make it illegal to release the shooter's name after any massacre. The theory is that these assholes go on shooting sprees because infamy is their only hope for a meaningful life and keeping their name a secret robs them of that.

Yup. From the second article in the OP
“Johnston and her coauthor, Andrew Joy, BS, also of Western New Mexico University, reviewed data on mass shootings amassed by media outlets, the FBI and advocacy organizations, as well as scholarly articles, to conclude that “media contagion” is largely responsible for the increase in these often deadly outbursts. They defined mass shootings as either attempts to kill multiple people who are not relatives or those resulting in injuries or fatalities in public places.....We suggest that the media cry to cling to ‘the public’s right to know’ covers up a greedier agenda to keep eyeballs glued to screens, since they know that frightening homicides are their No. 1 ratings and advertising boosters......”

[R6436]

There is a movement to make it illegal to release the shooter's name after any massacre. The theory is that these assholes go on shooting sprees because infamy is their only hope for a meaningful life and keeping their name a secret robs them of that.

Common reply I hear to this where I work (with the media): That violates our First Amendment Rights!

After almost 20 years of observation I have noted that the average person in the media, especially those on camera, can only perceive the world around them as far as 3" past their nose. They see themselves as blameless in all things and should be made exceptions to all rules... because they're "the press".

[Biggy]

Common reply I hear to this where I work (with the media): That violates our First Amendment Rights!

After almost 20 years of observation I have noted that the average person in the media, especially those on camera, can only perceive the world around them as far as 3" past their nose. They see themselves as blameless in all things and should be made exceptions to all rules... because they're "the press".

Here is a case in point:

"We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them." — CNN's Don Lemon 10/30/18

[26 Inf]

I don’t think this is brought up nearly enough...hardly at all. I have always thought the #1 reason we have seen this phenomenon for the past 20 years is media coverage. Every new batch of saturation coverage breeds the next copy cat shooter. Problem is how do you get the media to acknowledge it?

I think this needs to be brought up in every discussion on this topic. If I was a politician being interviewed I would harp on this and encourage all my colleagues to do as well. I would reference the studies by the American Psychological Association ad nauseum ... other studies as well.

You are right it is not brought up enough. If you look at active shooter events, it is pretty apparent there are clusters following a major event which gets continuous coverage.

This should be brought up often, as you said.....but......the evangelizing about the lefts gun control measures as a result of active shooter events needs to be absent, or toned down.

Too much of the 'the left loves mass shootings' rhetoric drives fence sitters away.

What we need to do is get the Congress, State Legislators and Governors to issue resolutions or proclamations stating the problem and calling on the media to not publicize the names and histories of the shooters.

[WillBrink]

There's good intel on how the media attention drives various mass shooters here:

https://nonotoriety.com/

Two, another fact most are not aware of, the study claiming the US leads the world in mass shootings may have been completely fabricated and because it fit the agenda, only a few have questioned it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=lXGgI2E5JUw

[SteyrAUG]

Remember all the terrorist hijackings in the 60s and 70s? I don't think we can blame the media for those things, but the coverage did make sure every wannabe Baader Meinhoff idiot understood the general idea.

Didn't really stop until the coverage was of things like Israeli special forces taking them out at Entebbe.

The loser who shot up the theater in Aurora will get three hots and a cot for the rest of his life, better than his prospects if he hadn't done anything.

So until the day comes when we somehow stop these clowns and SWAT gives them lead poisoning before they can kill anyone and then drags their bullet ridden bodies into the parking lot for media cameras it's going to continue to be a successful 15 minutes plan for losers in life.

[OldState]

A
There's good intel on how the media attention drives various mass shooters here:

https://nonotoriety.com/

Two, another fact most are not aware of, the study claiming the US leads the world in mass shootings may have been completely fabricated and because it fit the agenda, only a few have questioned it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=lXGgI2E5JUw

The truth is irrelevant. The media simply looks for confirmation of their bias. Anything that conforms they accept at face value. If it doesn’t they ignore or attempt to delegitimize it.

This is truth with many topics but I often tell people that it is the most apparent with gun control. Every time there is a school shooting major networks rehash the bogus statistics from Everytown as to how many school shootings there have been this year. This data is repeatedly exposed for including gang related violence and even BB guns shot at school buses. Yet they never retract the story. The intent is clearly to propagandize the public by repetition.

Another article
https://undark.org/2018/03/08/media-coverage-of-mass-shootings-misses-the-mark-for-decades/

[OldState]

I’ve posted some links in another thread but I think this is super important to share with as many as possible. Even NBC and NPR have reported on it. Several studies all being ignored by the media

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5296697/