9 ms·
US newspapers run more photos of school shooting suspects than victims (2018)
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoIsn’t that true of any notorious criminal act in any country? It doesn’t seem like a diversion of what “news” is and what people are interested in reading about.
- ronnier 7y agoYesterday, a Virginia Beach city employee killed 12 people at his workplace. I've seen no pictures of him, I looked at several sources and it seems he's ignored for the most part. CNN is running pics of the victims https://imgur.com/a/U6A5oCb https://imgur.com/a/U6A5oCb Personally I want to know about the murderer. I don't want this hidden from the public.
- futureastronaut 7y agoCensored news is the best news.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- iaw 7y agoI've noticed a shift in coverage over the last year or so as well, I suspect all the news organizations finally got their act together about how to cover these stories without causing more damage.
- yourduskquibble 7y agohttps://i.imgur.com/sm7mrJi.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sm7mrJi.jpg
- dang 7y agoPlease don't do this here.
- hackermailman 7y agoIt's not a school shooting though, the last one I believe was UNC Charlotte and the shooter's multiple pics are all over the stories
- snek 7y agoAfter John Lennon was murdered it became less common for media outlets to publicize the identities of murderers beyond maybe a name and a mugshot. With the more recent shootings there has been a bit of a revival of going into the profiles of the murderers (mostly, it seems, on cable tv) but that is a bit of a departure of the norm.
- curtis 7y ago> Personally I want to know about the murderer. I don't want this hidden from the public. I want to understand what the murderer's motivation was, to the extent that we can. On the other hand, I'd be happy to know that without knowing their name. I don't know if that's practical, but keeping the name out of most news reporting might measurably reduce the murderer's notoriety. I don't know if that would reduce mass shootings in the future, but it seems unlikely that it would hurt.
- exabrial 7y agoThe sad thing about the news industry is that the more extreme stories they run, the more money they make.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- iaw 7y agoI wish there was a better model for the news industry but I haven't been able to think of one.
- bitttttten 7y agoIn a system that is not so strictly for profit, this would exist.
- exabrial 7y agoAny ideas how this would be done? State sponsored (non-profit) fairs very low. Wikileaks is the only example that comes to mind of a pure fact-finding non-profit news outlet.
- jjeaff 7y agoI don't think we have any idea if WikiLeaks is actually non-profit and not manipulated at the whims of government. I think PBS and NPR do an excellent job as non-profit orgs fundes by private and public money. And they have audited financial statements to show they are truly non-profit.
- wallace_f 7y agoThis graphic has become a recently popular meme on social media, showing how excessive coverage of extreme black swan-type events has influenced the public conciousness: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/05/Causes-of-death-in-USA-vs.-media-coverage.png https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/05/Causes-of-death-i...
- alexpetralia 7y agoI will leave this great Tweet series by Justin Owings here: https://twitter.com/justinowings/status/1134423782314192897 https://twitter.com/justinowings/status/1134423782314192897
- deogeo 7y ago"The press may not be successful most of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling them what to think about."
- newnewpdro 7y agoIsn't it a common practice to not identify minors in the news?
- Glyptodon 7y agoI can't wait until we get to the point where news broadcasts are basically "bad things happened, but we think it would be best to not get into the ugly specifics. In the meantime here are some photographs of people who could use your prayers."
- jMyles 7y agoThe upsetting part isn't the presence or absence in media reports of particular actors in school shootings. It's the fact that the 23 people killed in school shootings in 2018 - tragic as these deaths are - have managed to take away all the attention from the over 3,000 children killed by motor vehicles that year. I can't help but notice that the media of the US is very reluctant to shine a light on an epidemic whose solution invariably involves cutting into the profits of its oil and automobile sponsors. I understand that we have a desire to handle both problems, but to the degree that this these are public policy problems, we also need to remember that opportunity cost (for example, in the form of hearing agendas in legislative committee scheduling) is very real - every bit of attention on one problem is indeed a lack of attention on another. The number of committee meetings in US legislatures (including both houses of congress) over ridiculous cosmetic gun control laws is absurd, while at the same time these bodies barely say a word about the extreme petronormative policies that dominate infrastructure planning and invariably lead to death and permanent disability for more young children than any other cause.
- elamje 7y agoI do agree that news channels rarely cover the statistically significant story such as motor vehicle deaths, etc. However, I think their coverage pattern has a lot more to do with their incentive to maximize their own profit and tell the most inflammatory/engaging story. Cars killing someone isn’t as flashy as a man with a gun.
- petoskystone 7y agoWelcome to America
- dang 7y agoCould you please not post unsubstantive comments or flamebait to HN? You've done quite a bit of that already, and it's against the site rules and we ban accounts that do it. If you'd review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended, we'd be grateful. You might also find these links helpful for getting the spirit of the site: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html
- elamje 7y agoShould people be surprised by that? Turn on any major news channel and you will instantly see evidence that bad news sells better than good news. Newspapers are businesses and most have a simple equation in mind when deciding what content to use: use x s.t. x maximizes profit Hopefully younger people will start to move away from traditional news sources as they realize how it skews ones world view towards negativity.
- marak830 7y agoIMO they are. I teach k12 esl(pre:edit, kindergarten to year 12 English as a second language), my highest levels - free conversation we tried a spot where students would tell us about an interesting news story they had seen, heard or read about in the last week. We have dropped that idea. 30 students over a month we're regularly admitting to not actually knowing any real news outside of their immediate circle. Note that these students arnt known for slacking off when it comes to homework, we deliberately didn't set a goal, it was something we planned to ask in class without notice. Small sample, absolutely. But it was eye opening for the 4 teachers in this. Not sure if this will help the conversation, but a little anecdote doesn't hurt every now and then :-)
- frosted-flakes 7y agoPersonally, I've actively avoided reading the news lately. It just seems so pointless--what do I gain by reading about President Trump's latest antics or how bad the housing market is? I used to read my small city's local newspaper (hard copy) because it was news that actually applied to me, but it got shut down a year or two ago (unfortunately). The only time I'll read the news is during an election, because I want to be at least somewhat informed. Otherwise, I might hear about it from others or if it shows up on HN.
- b_tterc_p 7y agoIs this a relevant metric? Why do we want to show pictures of victims? If I got killed in a shooting I don’t think I would want my picture thrown all over the news, nor do I think it would be particularly good for my family.
- Swizec 7y agoSame reason as why celebrities are reported “Found dead in a bath tub” and not “Committed suicide”. It discourages copycats. In some way the more you talk about the perps, the more you’re saying “You can do this and then you will be famous”
- zamadatix 7y agoSince it's usually "Found dead in bath tub... from apparent suicide" I assumed it was just a more attention grabbing headline.
- casefields 7y agoPeople have a knee-jerk reaction that publishing photos glorifies said person. So to many, the journalists are glorifying the killer and not the victims.
- Voloskaya 7y agoHow is it a 'knee-jerk reaction' exactly? It seems to me it is well known that many of the perpetrators indeed do it in the hope of being glorified and being talked about.
- jjeaff 7y agoWell they are definitely talked about. But that's not what glorified means. They are villified (rightfully so). But perhaps being famous for any reason is their goal.
- philwelch 7y agoIt’s not a “knee-jerk reaction”; it’s established science that publicizing mass shooters (and even comparing their death tolls, as some media outlets do) leads to media contagion (ie copycat behavior).
- lostmymind66 7y agoIt really depends on the suspect. If the suspect is a white supremacist, it's all over the news immediately. If it doesn't fit the current narrative, we might see the suspect 3 days later. I've been recently paying attention to this and one of the latest shootings involved a trans student in the process of transitioning. It had barely any coverage. There really is a bias in the media that is now bordering on censorship.
- armenarmen 7y agoNot disagreeing that shooters who do t fit the narrative get less coverage, but I’d also point out that the shooting you’re describing in Colorado had a (thankfully) very low body count
- finnthehuman 7y agoShowing victims vs suspects is a con. It's not a secret how to responsibly cover shootings in the news, and hasn't been for 30 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4
- Proven 7y agoIf it was the opposite, then you'd complain that they're using victims to make more money and destroying their dignity. Advice: don't read US newspapers if they bother you, start your own newspaper or simply get over it. One can't please everyone and US has the inconvenient freedom of speech.
- vbuwivbiu 7y agoFact is that shooters and serial killers are idolized by the press and Hollywood. Every time there's a school shooting (every other week) the press shows images of the shooter and a bunch of teenagers is inspired to do the same. We make movies & TV series about serial killers. Scroll through Netflix and every other thumbnail has a gun. It's constantly reinforced in our minds.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- userbinator 7y agoCould it simply be because they want people to be aware of the suspect and report sightings, in the cases where the suspect hasn't been caught yet? Victims are harmless. If not caught, the suspect isn't. Hence the latter gets far more attention.
- rdiddly 7y agoTo the degree that we're talking about actual newsPAPERS (and the use of the term "front page" leads me to believe she is), this is probably a simple question of space. If one guy shoots another, you can probably run photos of both. But if one guy shoots 10, a photo of one shooter takes up a lot fewer column-inches than photos of 10 victims. If you're really intent on running photos of all 10 victims, you'll probably scale them down, maybe arrange them 5 x 2 in one panel that's collectively larger than one shooter-photo but smaller individually. In other words, mass-shooting victims are pictured less often, and smaller, for the simple reason that there are more of them. Maybe not the best reason, but that's precisely my point; no editor decides like "Hey the shooter is way more important and awesome, let's run his photo up front, and fuck the victims amirite!?" This comment certified Hanlon's Razor compliant.
- aaron695 7y agoDoing nothing and being shot makes you newsworthy how? The shooter did something newsworthy. Do we want the media to manipulate the news or not? And yes I get if a bridge falls on a person the person's photo is included. But is the bridge more photographed than victims is the question?