How the Media Can Help Prevent Mass Shootings

As threat assessors recognize, some mass shooters are motivated and inspired by other mass shooters and seek to replicate the actions in anticipation of the infamy. Yet there is also a need to educate the public as to how to prevent the next massacre. Research indicates that responsible reporting can address both goals.

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Preventing Contagion and Copycat Carnage

Criminal justice scholar Jaclyn Schildkraut addressed the issue of media contagion in a piece aptly named “A Call to the Media to Change Reporting Practices for the Coverage of Mass Shootings.”[i] She notes that although media coverage itself will always differ, patterns of reporting share one distinct feature: “an overwhelming emphasis on the perpetrators once they have been identified.”

A shooter’s name and likeness often dominatie newspaper and television screens, as well as the Internet. True, there is value in sharing such information as authorities search for a motive, create a profile if a perpetrator is at large, or share information that can help prevent future shootings. Yet, Schildkraut notes, we can achieve the same objectives “without turning mass shooters into media celebrities.”

Focusing on Facts, Not Fame

Schildkraut investigates methods of creating a more responsible form of media coverage of mass shootings that could relay important information about such events, yet also help to reduce their occurrence. She covers the contagion effect and the reality of copycat shootings that result from media coverage of mass shootings, and examines recommendations for media reporting that are offered by the World Health Organization (WHO) relating to suicide, which is recognized as a similarly contagious phenomenon. Schildkraut concludes that the WHO guidelines may be appropriate to consider extending to the way mass shootings are reported.

Schildkraut notes that specific application of the WHO recommendations could include avoiding excessive reporting of a massacre or sensationalizing the shooting through language, description, or visual presentation. News outlets could also minimize the amount of prominent space a shooting report is given, in order to reduce its perceived newsworthiness, which could diminish the potential rewards seen by a shooter-in-the-making who is considering carrying out a similar attack.

Other ideas include avoiding photos or video of the shooting and avoiding attempts to minimize or rationalize the actions of the shooter. When trying to explain why shooters commit such horrific acts of carnage, some reports might inadvertently rationalize or justify the shooting by focusing on a perpetrator’s motive.

Schildkraut notes that after the Columbine massacre, attempted rationalization centered on bullying, suggesting that the shooters were retaliating against their tormentors. She also notes that in many cases, perpetrators are portrayed as angry or troubled, which could inspire others with similar feelings to attempt to address negative feelings through resorting to violence.

Another idea is to avoid publishing content created by perpetrators, including videos, writings, or manifestos. Doing so could avert the sharing of tips and strategies about how to commit similar acts of violence. In support of this recommendation, Schildkraut notes that the Columbine shooters left behind a series of videos that were named “The Basement Tapes,” which contained content that was so disturbing the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, concerned they would provide a template for other would-be shooters, destroyed the tapes after they had been sealed for 12 years and before they were released to the public.

Media-Community Partnership Can Help Prevent Mass Shootings

Many media outlets are in agreement that not publishing or reproducing of content left behind by perpetrators, or minimizing such publication, can not only prevent inadvertently providing guidance for others on how to carry out similar attacks but also prevent glamorizing the shooters themselves. Through collaborative community partnerships, media, law enforcement, and concerned citizens can work together to make schools and streets safer for everyone.