BLAME YOURSELF FOR MEDIA CONTENT

We tend to blame the media for sensationalizing murders, arson, and other individual generated tragedies and all this “bad stuff”. The recent mass shootings are examples that. They often publish the name, show pictures of the responsible individual and describe the scene in gory detail the retell the crime, step-by-step. At times, the media will disseminate, word for word, the message the murderer wants to be disseminated. From there, we blame the media for encouraging others to follow suite—copycat killings. Go to a newsstand that sells newspapers and news magazines and we see the name of the guilty party and the same but most disgusting picture of the person they can find glaring at us. It is a collective effort although each publication claims independence. In the background, often in the same publication, we invariably hear a weak voice blaming the media for perpetuating violence by sensationalizing the events. The news media publishes this kind of response to prove the publication is being fair. The thrust of this post is to point out that we are the ones who buy the newspapers, magazines, and listen to the newscasts. The producers of this media know what people will pay money to see, to listen to, and to read. If we didn’t want the pictures and the gory details they would not publish them. Don’t blame the media for what you demand of them. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated