Profile of a School Shooter: Ingredient 10 - The Media Hype, If It Bleeds It Leads

If a part of the fantasy was the sheer violence they fed on, another factor was the hero worship. They didn't want to just go out, they wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. If they were nobodies who wanted to become somebodies, the fastest way to do so was to do something so shocking that the media could not ignore it. The media in their own way, turned them into heroes.

When one reads these books, watches these movies, or listens to the music that inspired mass shooters, one strong theme runs through all of them. In each case the hero of the is the killer, students cheer them, crowds gather to spur them on, and the media worships them.

While I was researching I was appalled at the sheer number of tributes there were not to the victims, but to the shooters. A quick tour of Youtube reveals that for many, these mass shooters kids were not perpetrators but victims.

The media in most cases played right into it. While it was happening, and then for weeks after, the media hand fed us every detail they could get. Even seemingly insignificant details became front page news. The pictures of school shooters were broadcast nationally and internationally. Not the pictures of the way their life ended, but the pictures that showed smiling, seemingly normal boys. Had we not known their names, we could have looked through a yearbook and barely even noticed those pictures.

In some societies, someone who committed such atrocities would have been forgotten. Their name would not have been used ever again, removed from the records, and erased from our memories. If any photos at all were shown it would be not of the life they lived, but the way they died.

In ours, they are imprinted. American's love the anti-hero. Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, Ted Bundy. Criminals, villains, murderers, yet they remain part of the American folklore long after their deaths. They have somehow become heroes, and the higher the body count the better.

Nothing has changed. As the media monster continues to grow, it needs more and more food to sustain its growth. The monster feeds on the negative, the horrific, the grotesque. The more shocking the story, the more they show it.

They say it takes 5 positives to overcome 1 negative thought, but if a law were passed saying that each negative story shown must be followed up by one positive the media moguls would be screaming their heads off. They make their money off of human suffering, and unfortunately, business is good.

As long as they continue showing the horrific, the graphic, the tragic, there will be a way for nobodies to become somebodies. All they have to do is make sure the story is worse than the last one and anybody can get their fifteen minutes of fame.

What does the press coverage of Columbine or Virginia Tech say to the kid who relates to the bullying and abuse? Why did they bury themselves in fantasies where the victim becomes the hero not by overcoming, but by striking out at the victimizers?

When there are not just news reports, but round the clock coverage, Book deals, movies, songs written in their honor. How many of them watch and think... "They wont forget his name, and they wont forget mine either."

I was horrified when the media aired the manifesto of the Virginia Tech shooter. There was no responsibility in their actions, only further media sensationalism and scare tactics. They knew it would get them ratings, and it did, but at what cost to society?

Many of the later shooters specifically referenced earlier shootings. The media creates copycat violence, which in turn gives them more stories to report, and even better ratings.

Part of responsible media is not just covering the story, but covering it in a way that does not create copycats. It is becoming a part of the solution not more of the problem. We should all demand this of our media.