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First article suggests, among other things, that:
1) The Media needs to repeatedly hold elected officials accountable for providing solutions; and
2) Sometimes the “impartial” Media needs to “pick a side” — and error on the side of “what’s right” ...
The media’s by-the-numbers coverage of gun massacres must change
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“Sometimes, journalists don’t just report the news: They can help a community or a country set an agenda,” said Bill Grueskin, a former Wall Street Journal editor who is a professor at Columbia Journalism School.
That means “shining a light on solutions as well as problems, and insisting on accountability all the way.”
Sounds right, but what does that mean in this situation? For Grueskin, it means a coordinated approach among large and small news organizations; it means much greater accountability from officials who are in a position to resolve the crisis (“including ask them on, say, a weekly basis, what they’ve done this week to address the issue”).
But, for Grueskin and others, one other requirement may be the toughest to approach: “It also means, alas, taking sides.”
Just as there was in the 1950s and 1960s while covering civil rights, or today in covering the climate crisis, there actually is a right or wrong side on the matter of controlling rampant gun violence.
Journalists need to be on the right side of that, and not afraid to own it.
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This next article suggests, the Media needs to stop their “blanket coverage” of these horrific events. Studies show that such wall-to-wall coverage, often triggers another unstable person in the audience — other “potential shooters” — that they too can can have a “chance of fame” …
Mass shootings: Experts say violence is contagious, and 24/7 news cycle doesn't help
by Dennis Romero, NBC News; msn.com — Aug 5, 2019
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As research suggests that violence, particularly gun carnage, can be contagious, some experts are calling for an end to blanket media coverage of mass shootings, saying it can provide potential shooters with the chance of fame, scorecards with which to compare each other and even blueprints for carrying out attacks.
"We see some forms of violence peak when society becomes fascinated," said Jillian Peterson, a psychologist and professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. "We know that mass shootings are socially contagious and tend to occur in clusters."
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A 2018 study published by the German research organization IZA, or the Institute of Labor Economics, split few hairs.
"Our findings consistently suggest that media coverage systematically causes future mass shootings," the research group wrote in "The Effect of Media Coverage on Mass Shootings.
Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama, has come to similar conclusions in his own research. He said the news media contributes to mass shootings by offering suspects fame, perversely rewarding higher casualty counts with splashier coverage, and inadvertently inspiring copycats.
"We also have a number of clear cases of direct influence from one perpetrator to another," Lankford said.
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What say you?
I for one, only get depressed by the wall-to-wall coverage, without any real solutions. Hopelessness is a valid emotion, but the round the clock banging of that dismal drum, achieves little good — except to expose our collective helplessness.
Devote an hour or two each day [or 10 minutes each hour], to cover the details of the “societal cancer” — but until you have a cure, Newrooms, please resume some sense of normalcy, before you inspire some foundationless person, to rise up and grab his 15 minutes of fame too.
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And Yes, Yes, Yes — Demand officials provide solutions. Just because the News Cycle has moved on, doesn’t mean the underlying root problem has been addressed — much less solved.
It is merely lying dormant, until some hateful words, some rubber-band snapping event, sparks the next hair-trigger “potential shooter” to go out — and make the News … “to go out with a bang.”
Unfortunately, instead of offing only themselves, their riled-up hate can become a sickness that pushes them to take as many innocent bystanders with them as they can. In one final chance to grab power, to express their rage. … to leave their “mark”.
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(My father took his own life by a too-easily acquired gun — with no waiting period required. Fortunately for the world, his self-loathing only extended to himself [and to God]. The chaos and voids he left on the world, were mostly marks left on his own young family, many times over. Thankfully, he had the ‘good decency’ — not to inflict his personal pain on any innocent bystanders.)
Thanks NRA. Thanks for nothing — ten times over. Your blood-money agency’s political stance ruins lives by the truckload.
You know what Wayne LaPierre — sometimes, some problems, cannot be solved, by MORE easily accessible guns. I’m just saying …
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PS. I love these wall-to-wall reminders of EZ Gun Violence, that the Media is all too willing to bring into our living-rooms on an ever-increasing, solving-nothing basis.
Unfortunately for the world, if it bleeds, it still leads …
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