It is right around the time of year, when TV shows new and old make their season debut. As is every year I pick a few to keep up with throughout the season. The newest addition to my small lineup is ABC’s newest project by Shonda Rimes, How to Get Away With Murder? A drama, depicting a Law School Professor and the methods she uses to successfully represent guilty clients. It was around the half way mark of this program when I thought, what drives individuals so far as to kill? No one would need to represent the guilty if they just reverted to proper logic like every other human. I thought of the usual culprits the media depicts like genetics, familial upbringing, and socioeconomic level as risk factors for committing homicide. All of them plausible answers that could very well be supported and ones I most likely found to be true. But there is also that with which cant be explained, like those who kill with seemingly no possible explanation, they’re just bad people. Despite all that we see as variables in creating killers, what is it that throws these individuals off the deep end?
The answer according to Dr. Park Dietz is the same being that reports these horrendous crimes, the media. He came to this conclusion through largely observational research based on no real quantitative data, but that of what he’s seen and heard. He interviewed some of the biggest mass killers America has seen and “concluded” from that the media inspires copycats through its coverage. The article goes on to provide an example that supports Dr. Dietz claim, the surge in copycats fallowing the medias coverage of the 1982 Tylenol Poisonings. After the media, in the area where the killings occurred, were persuaded to decline their coverage, the threats decreased. That example provided to support the hypothesis of Dr. Dietz is the perfect illustration of an anecdote. I would be more convinced if there were hundreds of examples of this occurring. I would also be persuaded if the research was actually well done. Of course, with this type of research it would be impossible to conduct a double blind placebo trial as one it would be highly unethical and two its hard to commit murder without knowing that you’re doing it. But a larger sample size or in this instance more cases would severely help the argument. Another issue is the lack of evidence based science and instead experience-based science. Furthermore I find it hard to rule out the possibility of reverse causation, could it be that potential killers have planed a similar crime and are waiting for the right time, like when the media is saturated with similar stories. Whether or not the media plays a role in pushing people to kill I don’t know, but what I do know is that much more science based research is needed. Only after that will we maybe have a convincing answer.
Courtesy of http://www.socialmediatrend.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/media.jpg
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/does-the-media-help-pull_b_639020.html
http://everydaypsychology.com/2008/07/why-do-people-kill-typology-of-violent.html#.VCsJ41Y3fwI
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1878063,00.html
http://www.socialmediatrend.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/media.jpg
This is a really interesting topic that you brought up! I know I just read about a boy in England who viciously murdered his girlfriend. Many believe that the reason he did so has something to do with his obsession with the show Dexter, which apparently revolves around the life of a serial killer. Whether or not the reason behind his killings and the killings of so many others is sparked by the violence portrayed on the media, is something I believe is very difficult to test. Like you said, it would be extremely unethical to try and test any of this out on others. Maybe, however, we could look into people who currently have mental illnesses that are typically linked with those of serial killers, and see if maybe while they are watching the shows or media, if their blood seems to race or their heartbeat quickens, or something about their behavior changes due to this form of media. I think it is something that is extremely difficult to tell based on each case being different and varying in numerous ways but it could be worth a shot!
This post is interesting because I have always thought that what we see on TV and video games can have a serious effect on us as people. I feel as thought media can allow the incident to become almost “normal” to see because we are used to the news bombarding us with serious information about killings and such. Therefore, by this the media is providing us with information that almost makes it normal to see happening all over. Now, I definitely feel as though if one commits murder there are far more reasons that come along with murder than just solely the media, but the media can attribute to it. I agree that this information and data provided is not convincing information. There needs to me more science based research needed. Here is more on this
This post is interesting because I have always thought that what we see on TV and video games can have a serious effect on us as people. I feel as thought media can allow the incident to become almost “normal” to see because we are used to the news bombarding us with serious information about killings and such. Therefore, by this the media is providing us with information that almost makes it normal to see happening all over. Now, I definitely feel as though if one commits murder there are far more reasons that come along with murder than just solely the media, but the media can attribute to it. I agree that this information and data provided is not convincing information. There needs to me more science based research needed. Here is more on this
Definitely a different approach to explaining murder. Media definitely plays a stronger role in our lives than we realize at times. Psychology Today however, took the stance that different areas of the world describe homicides differently, and explain them differently. The study showed that Americans tended to associate a murderers poor internal traits to why they murdered, whereas Asians explained the external factors in a murderer’s life. To relate to the media topic, different cultures report on homicide cases differently which alters society’s understanding of murder and the acceptance of it as part of an imperfect world.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-conscious/201207/why-do-killers-kill
I really liked this post, I haven’t thought about the media’s influence in crime. Although I agree that there is a correlation between what the media covers and the violence present in our society today, I also believe that crazy people will be crazy people, and if someone was planning on murdering/ harming someone, the media wouldn’t have that big of an effect on them. If someone is set on committing a crime, I think the media would have little to no influence on their decision.
I agree that in some cases there definitely seems to be a correlation, but you’re right, it would be really hard to figure out. I just wanna point out something I’ve noticed… the fact that sometimes the media picks up stories to publish around the “hot” topic at that moment. Like lets say there is a huge robbery in X place. The media will begin to pick up other robberies around the country and publish those as headline news making it seem like “oh my gosh, it’s occurring everywhere!” Not saying that’s what is happening in all copy cat murder scenarios, but it could be a possible reason sometimes.
I like this post, it matchs what I learned lately! This semester I took a comm class which is related to media effects. Like you said in the article, therer are a part of audience who are influenced easily by the media and then did some extream things, like merder. But unlike this kind of idea, here’s an idea brought up by Hovland, the limited-effected perspective. It believe that the media effect is overperspected by people in earlier years, and the statistics he prove can prove his point strongly. About the media’ effect to people there’s still a little unclare. But most of scientists hold the point that the effect is depends on personality and identity of each person.