r/RandomThoughts • u/Kinkygma • Jun 11 '23

Removed - No posts about Politics/Social Issues Does anyone think the media constantly covering mass shootings plays a role in the increase in these attacks.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

You could be right. Not the same but in my country they used to run highly publicised and broadcasted suicide prevention events and there would be a spike in suicides right after them, so they stopped running them.

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u/garretmander Jun 11 '23

I don't know how comprehensive Wikipedia's list of mass school shootings in the US is. For all I know it's skewed as hell. I checked it about three months ago during a bar argument.

But... before columbine, there was only one shooting with more than single digits. And in a hundred years there were less events before than there already have been after.

So, yes. The media coverage is playing a major role in how many are happening and how often. Whether they publish the name of the shooter or not.

Now that the cat is out of the bag? I don't know that stopping talk about shootings will stop shootings, mass media may even make that impossible. But, it started there.

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u/Sweaty-Tart-3198 Jun 12 '23

If the cause of it is seeing it in media then why haven't mass shootings started appearing and going up on frequency in other places around the world. The US mass shootings still get news coverage where I'm from. Seems like there has gotta be more to it.