April 20, 1999 – two teenagers walked into their high school in Littleton Colorado armed with guns and killed 14 of their fellow students, and wounding 21 others before taking their own lives (A&E Television, 2014). The gunman – Fylan Klebold, and Eric Harris – were believed to have been a part of a social outcasts group that called themselves the “Trenchcoat Mafia” which is why they committed the crimes. However, during this time mainstream media including music, television, and video games were to blame. In particular – during this time shock rocker Marilyn Manson was made the scapegoat for the murders because of his music, and the way he presented his art. It was later shown that the two gunman never listened to Marilyn Manson.
School shootings have continued through the years after the massacre at Columbine. The worst school shooting topping Columbine in United States history happened April 16, 2007 at Virginia tech where 33 people including the gunman were murdered (A&E Television, 2014). The school shootings following Columbine have created, in my mind, the question of whether or not the students that are engaging in these acts are imitating those that came before them through vicarious learning.
Vicarious learning (performing a particular behavior because one observes the behavior being rewarded) is the principle of Bandura’s social cognitive theory of mass communication (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Rewarding behavior? How were the school shooters rewarded, and how can this influence future school shooters? When extreme violence occurs, such as a school shooting, the media flocks to the story and continuously replays the details over and over. It becomes nearly impossible for anyone to not know who the suspects are in the situation. All of a sudden within a few hours – two kids from Littleton Colorado – have gone down in United States history as conducting one of the most heinous crimes. They are now celebrity. People will always know who they are. If that is not one of the biggest rewards for this unfathomable act of violence, than I do not know what is. Meanwhile the victims remain unknown for the most part. Children see this reward system and may become motivated to do it bigger and better because they know if they top the last guy, they will become even more famous. People will know them forever.
The media in part aids in the desensitization of violence through video games, television shows, and the news (Schneider et al., 2012). Desensitization of violence only increases people’s tendencies to act aggressively and violently due increasing their tolerance of violence while decreasing their desire to not act aggressively (Schneider et al., 2012). Desensitization along with the rewards of being violent – are a recipe for disaster.
In closing, I would like to leave you with the following quote by Marilyn Manson when he addressed the topic of Blame and Violence (videos can be found on YouTube for those interested in listening to the entire 12 minute speech). I feel this quote asks a very important question that each of us adults sincerely needs to sit and ponder.
“Is adult entertainment killing our children, or is killing our children entertaining adults? And I think that is the kind of question we need to ask ourselves today. And you have to ask yourself that every time you watch the hungry cameras at the crime scene, or at the funeral, or at the plane crash, interviewing the victim. You know, 24 hour footage watching the guy blow his brains out on the L.A. freeway.” – Marilyn Manson
References
Columbine High School Massacre. (2014). Retrieved October 26, 2014, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/columbine-high-school-massacre
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
You make some great points especially about desensitization to violence. The first thing that comes to mind is movies. I remember when movies were more seriously rated as far as family and PG13. Today movies that used to be R are now considered PG. People ask me why i do not let my children watch shows like Power Ranger, Ninja Turtles or Simpsons. I feel these shows portray violence ans disrespect to authorities figures. Overall continuous viewing of these shows can overtime desensitize my children which is concerning.
In addition media often leads are children to believe through influence that the only way to be important is to be seen. This means to be famous in one way or another. As you indicated these children who perform heinous acts often just want attention and this is the only way they feel they can achieve the title of importance.
Instead of blaming violence on media i sometimes feel we need to look deep and further back on how the child was raised. Meaning their family health history as well as if they had family around when they were growing up, i feel these are important factors.