Is the media causing mass murders?

www.nydailynews.com...



It's no secret that the Media vultures jump for joy whenever a horrific act like this occurs, Reporting on things like this is what gives them their highest ratings afterall, but are they the ones responsible for causing such crimes? Obviously they arent doing this deliberately, or so id like to think. But this story really made me think.

Like they say in the article, he was trying to get a "video game-like high score", now with the spreadsheets and all the research he did on the subject i'd say that this is one point that they are actually right on. He was obviously trying for a high score. But whats the point of getting a high score in video games? Well everyone whos ever been to an arcade or played an online game knows, its to get recognition for what they did. People like attention and having your name at the top of the leaderboards is very appealing to alot of people.

In this case(aswell as all other mass shootings where games were blamed) the media had wall to wall coverage of the events and the backgrounds on the shooters, just like video game leaderboards the Media is broadcasting the "high scores", their gamer tags (name), their location (map). their K/D ratio with how many people they killed, their Accuracy with how many bullets were fired compared to how many kills there were, and the guns they used to achieve this high score, effectively being a real life leader board for mass murders.

Please, if anyone sees this another way enlighten me, because this is how i see it. The media is the leader board and real life is the game.

reply to post by MastaShake


Before you post anything substantial...I blame the parents. Period.

More likely, the rampant prescribing of anti-depression meds is causing them. It's well known these drugs can cause homicidal and suicidal tendencies in some, so the more who are prescribed, the more you up that chance or one of them flipping out.

I'd check each of these killers out for anti-depressants, and I bet you find a correlation. Add that to desensitization to violence and killing from little kids playing M rated video games, and it's a recipe for mass murderers. At least this one was stopped before harming others.

Yes, parents are partially to blame, aswell as anti-depressants. But this isnt the main cause of the problem. Glorifying these tragic events is the biggest issue. im willing to bet a years pay that the medias coverage of the aurora shooting/gabby giffords shooting played a larger role in this kids decision to go on a killing spree than games could ever have, hell i'd go as far as saying that video games actually LOWER the amount of shootings that go on, because if you can go on a "killing spree" in a video game there are no real life effects. Why kill a bunch of people only to spend the rest of your life in prison or dead, when you can do it in a game and go on with your life? the answer is simple, if you get a huge kill streak in a video game your just one of thousands, but if you do it in real life you can be one of a few and have your name forever immortalized in the minds of people all across the country.





This was the cover for yesterdays Daily news.

reply to post by MastaShake
I think the media plays a huge role in such situations. For example: after the Columbine massacre and the non-stop onslaught of media coverage there was suddenly a string of copy cats and "hit lists" were popping up at schools all over the country. I believe that in the minds of some of the severely mentally unbalanced there exists the desire to become an "anti-hero" when the status of "hero" is unavailable to them, and the MSM circus provides them the ideas and the opportunity.

reply to post by littled16


i vaguely remember columbine but i do know that there was outrage directed towards Marilyn Manson because his "satanic" music was supposedly the cause for the shooting. i hate it how these news outlets manage to pin the blame on the shooters hobbies. im 100% sure that had these shooting happened 20-30 years ago rock n roll would have been balmed, 50 years ago comic books would have been blamed and 100 years ago books would have been blamed. but the one constant (the media) could never be to blame because the MSM is the good guy.

Originally posted by MastaShake
reply to post by littled16

 

i vaguely remember columbine but i do know that there was outrage directed towards Marilyn Manson because his "satanic" music was supposedly the cause for the shooting. i hate it how these news outlets manage to pin the blame on the shooters hobbies. im 100% sure that had these shooting happened 20-30 years ago rock n roll would have been balmed, 50 years ago comic books would have been blamed and 100 years ago books would have been blamed. but the one constant (the media) could never be to blame because the MSM is the good guy.

Yes . . .

While it may not be the only reason for these shootings, the media is helping proliferate them through the over-sensation and fear mongering that their coverage creates.

Several psychologists and sociologists have come forward to say this, but you certainly won't see them on a Piers Morgan expose of gun violence anytime soon.

When crimes that receive a lot of attention form clusters of this sort, it suggests that the desire for media attention, and notoriety is a strong motivating factor (4). Generally speaking, journalists and social media writers are unwilling to accept that sensational coverage of mass shootings makes these crimes more common (3).

Psychology Today - Copycat

I've you aren't naive enough to understand there is an agenda to dearm America, it would surely seem as if this (media coverage) is part of it. It only helps to instill fear by making them seem more common and contribute to the commonality by glorifying the assailants.

Originally posted by Gazrok
More likely, the rampant prescribing of anti-depression meds is causing them. It's well known these drugs can cause homicidal and suicidal tendencies in some, so the more who are prescribed, the more you up that chance or one of them flipping out.

I'd check each of these killers out for anti-depressants, and I bet you find a correlation. Add that to desensitization to violence and killing from little kids playing M rated video games, and it's a recipe for mass murderers. At least this one was stopped before harming others.

Yup, I couldn't agree more. But we can't have that now because the big pharma men will come a knockin~ And we can't hurt there piggy purse now can we.

I can understand where the OP is coming from on a Marketing and Metaphysical aspect. Every day now it's all about the shootings. In essence giving the shootings power and a life of it's own if you believe that type of thing.

So the Shootings that essentially has a life of it's own, now is waiting for the next individual to snap or whatever you want to call it.

Just to clarify, im not saying that video games get no blame, because theres plenty of blame to go around. but people just arent looking at the bigger picture. Blaming video games for mass shootings is like blaming books as the cause of lincons assassination or hitlers rise to power. yes they played a role, that role is minimal at best. Not too long ago politicians wanted to ban/regulate the content that goes into comic books because they saw it as a satanic art form, if someone were to try and pull something like that today they would be laughed at to no end.

reply to post by MastaShake


I have been on this earth for 37 years...I have seen the rise of home computers...I owned the first ZX Spectrum, than Commodore 64, than Atari ST, Amiga, and finally many incarnations of the PC, a home computer we know now. I also tried many consoles, from Gameboy, SNES, SEGA, Playstation (1,2,3), Wii, Xbox.

I had 'em all, I played them all. I played the most violent games out there since the beginning of gaming. I was a kid back than too. I grew as the computing advanced.

I never ever ever got the idea to substitute real life for a video game. The difference was always quite clear in my mind. And it was quite clear to any of my friends back than.

I think, that people that go on killing sprees are/were mentally unstable to begin with. Games are just games. The word itself says...a GAME. And for me...the parents are those that live with that child day in day out...they are the ones that should notice...that their child is not...well...normal...and they should take notice. Deal with it.

Instead, parents are either overprotective in the sense...that they think their child wouldn't or couldn't do this or that. Simply because it's their child. Therefore...can't be wrong. The other extreme is that they simply don't care. They think that after they gave birth to a child, this is where their parenting stops.

I takes a great deal and a lot of work to be a good parent. People seem to think that it's just inserting penises in to vaginas...