Monday, February 19, 2018

Want To Prevent Mass Shootings? Stop The National Media Coverage

We barely have time to recover from one tragedy when another is thrust to the forefront of national news, each one receiving endless hot takes and ideas.

Stop letting these mass tragedies dominate the news cycle for entire weeks.

Limiting reporting of mass shootings-at the very least ones involving children-to local news channels could be the primary way in which we cut down on their frequency.

While numbers for the news cycle are far harder to quantify, NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik discussed the rise of the 24-hour news cycle during a 2005, attributing constant news coverage to a rise in journalistic interest.

Research presented to the American Psychological Association in 2016 found a correlation between media contagion and an increase in mass shootings: "This quest for fame among mass shooters skyrocketed since the mid-1990s 'in correspondence to the emergence of widespread 24-hour news coverage on cable news programs, and the rise of the internet during the same period.'".

As outlets have become more and more focused on reporting constantly, news, all news, is emblazoned on every platform.

Namely, does the news industry mandate coverage of events that devastate small communities? Or can these occurrences be limited to the cities in which they occur, to avoid making the perpetrator an overnight celebrity?

http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/16/want-prevent-mass-shootings-stop-wall-wall-national-media-coverage/ 

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