APA Study Shows Irresponsible Media Coverage Doubles Mass Shootings

Yeah, but the dummies don't get these things

news agencies no longer make money covering news, news in connected world are cheap. What sells is propaganda. You may observe that perfectly by PBS budget. The rest of "media" are following suit. Instead of ads, they sell propaganda from Soros and other parties, whoever needs public opinion shaped whatever way.
 
Good article.

Here's the link to the original American Psychiatric Association article from 2016:

'Media Contagion' Is Factor in Mass Shootings, Study Says

"Media Contagion" Is Factor in Mass Shootings, Study Says
Psychologist calls on media to withhold shooters’ names

DENVER — People who commit mass shootings in America tend to share three traits: rampant depression, social isolation and pathological narcissism, according to a paper presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention that calls on the media to deny such shooters the fame they seek.

“Mass shootings are on the rise and so is media coverage of them,” said Jennifer B. Johnston, PhD, of Western New Mexico University. “At this point, can we determine which came first? Is the relationship merely unidirectional: More shootings lead to more coverage? Or is it possible that more coverage leads to more shootings?”

Johnston and her coauthor, Andrew Joy, BS, also of Western New Mexico University, reviewed data on mass shootings amassed by media outlets, the FBI and advocacy organizations, as well as scholarly articles, to conclude that “media contagion” is largely responsible for the increase in these often deadly outbursts. They defined mass shootings as either attempts to kill multiple people who are not relatives or those resulting in injuries or fatalities in public places.

The prevalence of these crimes has risen in relation to the mass media coverage of them and the proliferation of social media sites that tend to glorify the shooters and downplay the victims, Johnston said.

“We suggest that the media cry to cling to ‘the public’s right to know’ covers up a greedier agenda to keep eyeballs glued to screens, since they know that frightening homicides are their No. 1 ratings and advertising boosters,” she said.

The demographic profile of mass shooters is fairly consistent, she said. Most are white, ostensibly heterosexual males, largely between the ages of 20 and 50. They tend to see themselves as “victims of injustice,” and share a belief that they have been cheated out of their rightful dominant place as white, middle-class males.

“Unfortunately, we find that a cross-cutting trait among many profiles of mass shooters is desire for fame,” she said. This quest for fame among mass shooters skyrocketed since the mid-1990s “in correspondence to the emergence of widespread 24-hour news coverage on cable news programs, and the rise of the internet during the same period.”

She cited several media contagion models, most notably one proposed by Towers et al. (2015), which found the rate of mass shootings has escalated to an average of one every 12.5 days, and one school shooting on average every 31.6 days, compared to a pre-2000 level of about three events per year. “A possibility is that news of shooting is spread through social media in addition to mass media,” she said.

“If the mass media and social media enthusiasts make a pact to no longer share, reproduce or retweet the names, faces, detailed histories or long-winded statements of killers, we could see a dramatic reduction in mass shootings in one to two years,” she said. “Even conservatively, if the calculations of contagion modelers are correct, we should see at least a one-third reduction in shootings if the contagion is removed.”

She said this approach could be adopted in much the same way as the media stopped reporting celebrity suicides in the mid-1990s after it was corroborated that suicide was contagious. Johnston noted that there was “a clear decline” in suicide by 1997, a couple of years after the Centers for Disease Control convened a working group of suicidologists, researchers and the media, and then made recommendations to the media.

“The media has come together before to work for good, to incite social change,” she said. “They have done, and they can do it. It is time. It is enough.”
 
I've been preaching this for many years. I even leveled it at Prof. Jack Levin (I've known him for ~40 yrs), telling him that all his appearances on TV snews was feeding the copycat events. He was a captive ear as we rode the train into Boston one day.
 
The APA didn’t say or publish anything.

A paper written by an PHD from Western Mexico University presented a paper on her opinion that it’s the media’s fault.

Anyone can present just about anything at these conferences if the APA believes it will fill the session rooms.

Bob

....according to a paper presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention....

'Media Contagion' Is Factor in Mass Shootings, Study Says
 
It's not news to the media.
They love this shit.
If there is a way to gin up a few more , they are all in.
They need to be the second group marched to the gallows.
 
“If it bleeds, it leads” is the Editors Motto. Why risk a slow day in the newsroom when you can generate the blood and fabricate the lies?
 
The APA didn’t say or publish anything.

A paper written by an PHD from Western Mexico University presented a paper on her opinion that it’s the media’s fault.

Anyone can present just about anything at these conferences if the APA believes it will fill the session rooms.

Bob

....according to a paper presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention....

'Media Contagion' Is Factor in Mass Shootings, Study Says

Right. This is what the APA actually publishes and believes:

'Traditional masculinity' deemed harmful, could lead to sexual harassment, medical group says

For the first time in its history, the American Psychological Association (APA) released guidelines concerning men and boys, saying that so-called “traditional masculinity” not only is “harmful” but also could lead to homophobia and sexual harassment.
 

Well sort of. Like all news outlets they have their own bias.

This is what FOX News interpreted what they said. The also said that eating a vegan diet promotes “White Masculinity.” Whatever that is.

As usual, FOX news doesn’t provide a reverence to the article so one has to go searching for the quote. This is the policy guideline they are referring to:
https://www.apa.org/about/policy/boys-men-practice-guidelines.pdf

I’m not interested enough to read the 36 pages of their policy recommendations. I’m pretty secure in my own masculinity.:)

Bob
 
The APA didn’t say or publish anything.

A paper written by an PHD from Western Mexico University presented a paper on her opinion that it’s the media’s fault.

Anyone can present just about anything at these conferences if the APA believes it will fill the session rooms.

Bob

....according to a paper presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention....

'Media Contagion' Is Factor in Mass Shootings, Study Says

Also, it’s the American Psychological Association, not the American Psychiatric Association.
 
Human beings are ferociously imitative. It is how infants learn. It is how all of our culture is transmitted quickly. It would be in no way surprising if there were a causal link between 24/7 saturation hysterical high-production-value multimedia coverage of public murder events, and unstable people deciding to copy them.
 
I've been preaching this for many years. I even leveled it at Prof. Jack Levin (I've known him for ~40 yrs), telling him that all his appearances on TV snews was feeding the copycat events. He was a captive ear as we rode the train into Boston one day.

Did it do any good, or was his deaf ear pointed in your direction?
 
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