| Sleeping in EQ |
12-07-2007 07:20 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex
(Post 160638)
I'm sorry, but doesn't the attention this story is receiving (like VTech and others) simply goad other similarly-troubled people to do the same?
I mean, look at this image. Does this really need front-page CNN.com exposure?
http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/12/07...er.opdketv.jpg
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The answer to your first question is "no."
"Goad" is too strong of a word. There are negative consequences to making media spectacles of violent acts (such as this), many of which can be traced back to the representation of violence without consequences. But demonstrating a causal relationship between media coverage and a specific behavior--such as shooting up a mall--is extraordinarily difficult to do, and even in the instances where media coverage does seem to play an important role there are always intermediating variables.
Even in this situation, where the murderer wrote of his desire for fame, one would have to assume that he understood his own motivations. Perhaps Mike could address this, but his understanding his own motivations is not something I would assume.
His being "troubled" and others being "similarly troubled" is where all of this comes to a head. How the media and a desire for fame are related to the other aspects of his being "troubled"--psychological, sociological, biological--is the real issue, because cause emerges through their relationship. At most, the media is but one variable of many in these situations. None of this means that I'm crazy about the photo, though. |
