So there has been a school shooting in British Columbia - and I guess since I spent so much time living and working in the states, I forgot that these are horrifying and traumatizing events - which may just be down to the coverage in the media in the US versus Canada.
That's not to say that the coverage here has been good - quite the opposite in fact - but I will get to that at the moment.
I will qualify this in that I will freely admit that I have no expertise in either mass shooting psychology (or really any psychology for that matter) nor am I an expert on the function of news media - although I have some fairly strong opinions on the latter.
I feel that this is probably a good time to revisit an Episode of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe that aired in 2009, pilloried the established media coverage of mass shootings - and, of course, was completely ignored by news stations and channels courting sensationalism that would translate into viewership
A cut down version of this is available on youtube - however I think that it's important to watch the whole thing (attached) - and ignore some of the more cringey comedy bits (like the bits about the rabbit) - in order to gain a better understanding of the failure in media to cover these events properly. (but can be useful in terms of just sending a link to someone)
https[:]//www.youtube[.]com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4
Essentially - the suggestions boil down as follows:
- We've had 20 years of mass murders throughout which I have repeatedly told CNN and our other media, if you don't want to propagate more mass murders, don't start the story with sirens blaring.
- Don't have photographs of the killer.
- Don't make this 24-7 coverage.
- Do everything you can not to make the body count the lead story.
- Not to make the killer some kind of anti-hero.
- Do localize this story to the affected community and make it as boring as possible in every other market. Because every time we have intense saturation coverage of a mass murder, we expect to see one or two more within a week.
This video should be mandatory viewing at any school that teaches journalism. Does it contain lessons that should be heeded by any an all news media? Certainly. Have any done so? Well - just watch your local news, cable news programs and news website headlines to see if that has been done.
#SchoolShooting #MassShooting #CharlieBrooker #NewsWipe #TumblerRidge
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