Media Effects On Mass Shooting

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“There were 372 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2015, killing 475 and wounding 1870” BBC News reports. According to the statistic, mass shootings are happening everyday and even every minute an hour. Mass shooting is a huge public concern. Therefore, when a shooting occurs, media would often report the shooting with bloody detail, surprised statistics, and influential old shooting. Moreover, the media are the biggest fear mongers which create public panic to the society by using various methods. Meanwhile, due to the media coverages, mass shooting slowly become a serious threat to the people. Although the media has exaggerated the detail and statistics of the shooting, which make their coverages look more trustworthy, researchers and reporters …show more content…

Indeed, there has tons of sensational shootings that draw an enormous amount of attention in the United States. However, one of the most impressive mass shooting is the Columbine High School Shooting, which was happen on April 20, 1999. This massacre caused the national attention. In this shooting many innocence people died and many families had destroyed. At that time, the media constantly report this shooting with bloody detail, which cause many people feel uncomfortable and unacceptable. Until today, people still remembering this tragedy, and the media have still report this shooting, however, they are now using it as a reference when the similar shooting …show more content…

Media Portrayal of School Shootings,” “the researchers analyze 157 articles that mention Columbine and out of these 157 articles, only 33 contain detailed information on the event itself. The remaining 124 only make references to Columbine.” When a new shooting occurs, the media would often recall old case, such as “Columbine”, as their reference. Nevertheless, they would not explain the detail of the incident, they would only mention the name of the incident. Besides, the media’s purpose of doing this is they want to perpetuate the public fear. They use the tragedy of “Columbine” as a reminder to remind people the disastrous casualties and the miserable situation after the massacre. At the same time, their hype make people feel anxious and over exaggerate the threat of a school shooting incident in their community, this scare is not only affecting the society but also causes parents to fear the safety of their children in