Media Influence: The Cause of Copycat Crimes

Assess sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance:

Criminology is continuously changing and developing. Advances of technology have made media our primary news source for crime. We believe the stories told by our local news media, not doubting a word because these sources are supposedly reliable. Nevertheless, they sometimes do spread false information. It may be intentional or unintentional. According to Cohen, media presence amplifies a problem which did not previously exist (Steeves and Milford, 2015) thus creating a moral panic. As media influence increases, it is necessary for criminologists to study moral panics, such as the Columbine School shootings or the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.

School shootings have become well known around the world due to the coverage by the media. . These shootings are a serious concern and have parents constantly concerned about their child’s safety when they are at school and also have students thinking twice about any unusual or suspicious behavior. The media appears to play a large part in school shootings and it is important to analyze the deviant behaviors of the shooters in these horrific instances and the fear they create in schools. Does the media play a large part in school shootings or does the media play a large part in the sensationalism of school shootings and the fear they create both in schools and with parents?

Television news coverage of crime, and the visualness of the newscast, can have unintended influence

For this current event, I chose to read the article titled, Widespread media coverage contributing to rise in mass shootings, say psychologists, by Jess Staufenberg. In this article Jess elaborates on the idea proposed by psychologists that giving mass shooters the fame they desire in the media is contributing to their rise.

Our images of crime can be found upon the media, this includes: Television, News Publications and Novels in which we read. It is known that news editors and journalists make the decision of whether or not a story is fit for publishing, they determine this by looking at certain values including: the risk, violence level, immediacy, unexpectedness and the amount of drama/action.

their motives for the shooting are different from the protagonist in the middle and high school cases, who broadcast threats in advance to try to reverse their negative reputations and become notorious for the purpose of attracting friends, we found that many high school shooters were ambivalent about following through on their threats, hoping the threat alone might help improve their image in the eyes of their peers. The college shooters are bent on notoriety, but they appear less ambivalent about the attack. This is critical because it impacts the lead up to the shooting. Because high school shooters are looking to attract attention, they let off warning signals that could at least potentially enable those who are within earshot to notify

The allure of crime for the general public is the deviant behavior itself. Crime brings about multiple questions that crime dramas answer. Why would a person commit such a crime? Why was that person a victim? What are the surrounding circumstances? These are questions arise for most violent crimes in society, but in the news media not much is reported as the police must keep investigations under wraps. Resulting in an area of intrigue between the action and the courtroom that primarily focuses on the action itself and the extenuating circumstances of the action. This is where television dramas fill the void by quenching the public’s thirst for insight into the social taboo of violent Mala Prohibita crimes. In order to do this though cable companies have to make the crime shows

Summer is over and school has started. Students across the U.S. re-enter the educational buildings once left behind in the grade level prior. Many things are shared in the safety of a class room, to include: laughing, notes, questions, and resources. These learning platforms foster a contagion for knowledge and contribution that will spread from generation to generation. Parents expect curriculum to be followed in the school systems and for any type of contagion to include nothing more than the common cold, not mass shootings. Homicides gain abundant media attention and therefore stem copycat shooters. The Media should not be allowed to report on stories of mass shootings, as the likelihood of a second or copycat killer immediately after

Media today plays a big part in the mass shootings believe it or not. “Media contagion” is largely responsible for the increase in these often deadly outbursts”(Media Contagion). By showing the number

Different forms of media, such as television, films, books, and newspapers, have similar ways of portraying the criminal justice system. The media constructs representations of crime and justice and in doing this, it presents an often dramatized representation of the criminal justice system; and this does not just influence on the public’s lay view of crime but also for criminal justice experts (Marsh, 2014). In the media it is commonly known that they are a business, and businesses need to make a profit. Because of this, the media’s portrayal of the criminal justice system has been very negative. With the news, their main purpose is to produce what sells. So many of them would edit the information they have gathered and make a story that will sell. Also the media does not show the full process of the criminal justice as a quick process, while in fact it is not. For example, last year, Netflix released a short series called “Making A Murderer”. Most people claimed that they feel like they can solve a crime when they finished watching a series. While that series is very factual, it does not hit every single step of the criminal justice process.

Since people are mostly only able to participate in catastrophes such as this mass shooting at a distance, news media is the primary source of information, which therefore creates the audiences’ reality of the events that occur.(Wheeler 80) With this, the mass media has the control of what people are exposed to, and the choice to amplify awareness to what they choose as important. In an interview conducted with Sarah, an undergraduate student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she recalled her exposure to the news of the shooting: “The only reports I had access to, was what I saw in the news”. When asked how she thinks the media had an effect on her perception of the shooting, she stated: ”Well I believe that since the only information I was able to get was from news sources, what I saw in the news is what I believed. So I really do think the media had a strong effect since I was exposed to mainly what they chose to present to me.” With this, media messages, such as the reporting on the Las Vegas shooting, exert a strong influence on audiences and the cultivation of people’s perception. The frequent exposure to these stories of mass shootings and the use of descriptors based on race are fed to the audience and become a common knowledge. Ultimately, the promotion of racial stereotypes through the disproportionate representation of perpetrators of mass shootings influences public opinion and perception.(Lankford) With the strong effect that media has on the people, it is

What factors contribute to this significant gap between perceptions of violent crime and the reality of it? When asked where they obtain their information about crime, an overwhelming plurality of random participants ages 13 to 59 responded with the mass media (Warr, 2013). In the context of this survey and also this paper, the mass media is defined as diverse mainstream media technologies intended to reach a widespread audience (Warr, 2013). This encompasses all television, radio, internet, and paper outlets which broadcast to a wide range of audiences

In an ever-increasingly mediated society, mass media has become inseparable with the production of everyday life. Media is now a platform for members of society to connect with global events and other people beyond their own personal experience. For many, the media is a major source of information and “accounts of violence, as presented by the mass media, are the primary medium by which the average person comes to know crime and justice” (Barak, 1994). The following essay will explore the theories of both cultivation analysis, as established by George Gerbner, as well as agenda setting, reputable to Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. These concepts will demonstrate how the recent Santa Barbara Shooting is a major media event that reflects a

The copycat phenomenon is something that has been a major issue for quite some time. Dictionary.com defines copycat as, “a person or thing that copies, imitates, mimics, or follows the lead of another, as a child who says or does exactly the same as another child.” As it pertains to the phenomenon, anytime a certain crime is committed, the more that it is advertised, the more likely it will continue to happen and at a higher rate than before. In this paper, we will talk about the different events that have happened and that have been said to have been a product of the copycat phenomenon. Different types of the copycat phenomenon include: celebrity suicides, terrorism, and all sorts of crimes.