Are Mass Shootings Newsworthy?

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

I hate this but I’ve grown up with mass shootings happening every week. I am absolutely numb to them at this point yet every time there’s one with more then 5(?) it dominates the news for a few days to a week. Americans do the thoughts and prayers and clamor for gun reform and then (like always) nothing happens. At this point I don’t see the point in reporting any of them at all unless it’s something else going on (like racism). I’m genuinely exhausted by watching this play out hundreds of times throughout my life.

[GP270watch]

 Yes it's newsworthy, just because you've become numb to it or it happens frequently doesn't mean anything, that's your own issue. Mass shootings get bad news coverage "if it bleeds it leads" but very little coverage with respect to serious investigative journalism. That is part of the problem.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

If something becomes common enough, then each individual thing within that set stops becoming newsworthy by default.

[Cyrusman]

Only if it fits the news agenda, so pretty much race based.

If a black man kills other black men= not newsworthy
If a white man kills white men =not newsworthy
If an Asian men kills other Asian men= not newsworthy
If a black or Latino man kills other black or Latino men or a combo of both= not newsworthy

If a white man kills black or Latino men= News will be covering it for the next 7-10 days non stop.

[Kamala's side hoe]

If an Asian men kills other Asian men= not newsworthy

We just had 2 USGD threads on this in the last 4 days.

[DrScholl]

The gun lobby and gun nuts would love for that to be true, but it absolutely is not. A lot of people are numb to these shootings, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world should be. And just imagine if someone you cared about was injured or killed in a mass shooting. Would you like to be told that their death wasn't newsworthy?

[emailking]

I guess. I have mixed feelings about it.

[Del Tachi]

They are newsworthy, but the mass shootings that get the most attention from media (and thus take up the most room in the public imagination and gun control debates) mostly fall into a very narrow band of having what is now a very predictable setting and cast of characters:  a young, isolated White man (better if he has a history of being bullied, violent, or using psychiatric drugs) targetting random citizens at a school, church, event venue, etc.

The media reaction to these cases is to essentially turn the shooter into a romantic character - devoting hours of time to armchair psychoanalysis in an attempt "understand" what will always be irrational and unknowable.  This gives perps the swell of celebrity they've always wanted, which only inspires copycats to earn their notoriety in the same way.   

[Meclazine for Israel]

Yes and no. The media is the cure and the problem.

For the YES case.

It is basic information that people have a right to know in their community, however broad.

The media can help to answer the questions:

Why it is happening?
What can a viewer do to avoid being a victim?

For the NO case.

Mass Shootings are a virus, and the news media is the bloodstream necessary to spread it throughout the USA. With very high rates of gun ownership and availability, this combination forms a contagion which the US is currently suffering.

The main factors that bring these events to being are:

• High levels of firearm ownership and availability
• Viral spread of Mass Shootings in the media
• Relaxed laws regarding gun ownership and purchase
• Lack of a Federal approach to gun laws

To solve the issue, you need to tackle all these issues simultaneously.

Professor Adam Winkler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4gdpxnKTyI

This guy has an acute awareness of the exact issues facing the USA regarding gun violence.

[SnowLabrador]

They may not be treated as front-page news all the time, but that doesn't mean they're not newsworthy. It is a massive scandal that they continue to happen with such regularity.

[Bismarck]

They may not be treated as front-page news all the time, but that doesn't mean they're not newsworthy. It is a massive scandal that they continue to happen with such regularity.

This is my feeling as well. We can’t just let this be an accepted part of our society.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Only those were more than one person was killed.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

As I was told some of the mass shootings are due to people knowing each other and fell out they aren't all spontaneous just like Burglarizing someone's home it's not all spontaneous the victims know the robbers, I know people that do cyber bullies online so if they know where the person lives they commit a crime against

There are spontaneous but not always

[Sir Mohamed]

It depends.

Embarrassing this occurs with such frequency that we even have to discuss the question.