Virginia shooting proves Americans aren’t numb to tragedy — we just have a higher tolerance for it
US News
Virginia shooting proves Americans aren’t numb to tragedy — we just have a higher tolerance for it
For decades, members of the news media have struggled to determine whether a gruesome photograph or video crosses the line from newsworthy to something so disturbing that it is potentially harmful. Pretty much every major news organization agreed that the video of two Virginia journalists shot on live television Wednesday fell on the latter side of that fine line, and those that didn’t were subjected to heavy criticism and ridicule for giving undue attention to shooter Vester Lee Flanagan, who clearly wanted his violent act to be seen. But while airing the video on TV and online news outlets certainly would have helped Flanagan gain publicity, refusing to do so didn’t shield the unsuspecting viewers who tuned in to watch WDBJ and, without warning, were forced to witness as reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were killed.
One unfortunate consequence of the 24-hour news cycle is the feeling that we’ve seen everything. Another tragedy might not spark the response it would if we had not been so often exposed to some of these images.
Erica Scharrer
Over the past several years, a number of studies have traced growing desensitization to violence among Americans to increased media exposure to it. It makes sense. With the evolution of the Internet, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle coinciding with a dramatic rise in mass shootings, for example, it would be impossible for every mass shooting to elicit the same kind of public outpouring of grief and fear seen in the wake of Columbine. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, explained Erica Scharrer, a communications professor at the University of Massachusetts who has studied the effects of media exposure on people’s sensitivity to violent news reports. “It’s a coping mechanism. We can’t go around being worried about everything,” she said. Indeed, Scharrer said, the outrage prompted by the sheer horror of two murders being broadcast on live television without warning or delay is proof that Americans haven’t become totally numb to tragedy — we just have a higher tolerance for it.
Sometimes it takes shocking and upsetting things to make change occur.
Erica Scharrer
