The only reason the media reports on mass murders is for money.

When bad things happen, the media bombards us with it for months at a time. No good comes from doing this. Unless you consider lining their pockets with money a good thing. The public has a right to know what is going on in the world, but certain things are counterproductive to society. Society does not need to know every detail. Society does not really need to know the perpetrators name. Society does not need to see the gory details 30 times a day for months. The media only bombards us with it for ratings/money. They have conditioned society to feel they need to know the gory details. It is like driving on the Interstate and there is a wreck on the other side going the opposite direction yet the clear road you are on stops because of gawkers.
When i was growing up we had 3 TV stations, bad things happened but were not on the national news. When JFK was assasinated it was on the news but that is quite different. Any mass murders, etc, were delegated to rumor. There simply is nothing good that comes from bombarding society with things they can do nothing about. In the case of the school shootings it would be dealt with at the federal/state level and the solution to the problem would/should be dealt with by proffesionals to whom it relates. School shooting? Guard the schools. Theater shooting? Safeguard the theater. In both cases, look at mental health issues. Do not however burden society with the gory details for ratings/money. Keep these horrible events local and delegate them to mere rumors. Do not make the murderer famous.

The only reason the media report anything is money.

reply to post by SpearMint


Horrific things get them more money than anything else they can report on. They have learned this and are using it to make more money. If they could bombard us with naked super models to get ratings they would.

I can see where you're coming from sometimes the media can replay the same news over & over again apart from keeping the public informed & aware what is going on in the world of course they would want to strive to gain as much views as possible as it is what brings in part of the money for them to keep running their organization, to be honest i don't really think it is a bad thing for the media to report news & keep everyone updated but when they start manipulating/slight-tweaking the story then that's when i have hate on media reporters & that my friend is why we are here on ATS to deny ignorance.. to know the real truth not media/government manipulating/white-lies.

reply to post by FeelingPure


I respect your opinion and see where your coming from. However as long as there has been news organizations they made profits without sensationalizing murders. 50 years ago they made huge profits. They will not go bankrupt if they don't make murderers famous.

There is a reason they can not bombard us with porn, and there are laws against it for a reason. Because it is harmful to society. Murder and the gory details associated with it are far worse for society and should have restrictions as well.

reply to post by jimmiec


Although I see your point, continuing the blame game and not advocating personal accountability in what we want and/or expect from society is the issue. By and large, the media is supply and demand and isn't so much about it conditioning society as society demanding more news, gossip, breaking news the instant it happens, explicit details of celebrity sex lives (normal folk as well if the story is real 'dirty' or bizarre) and so on. The media relies upon our current appetites for what we think is news. If you need to blame anyone, then blame society as a whole because it is the trough from which the media feeds.

reply to post by LarryLove


Society can not be blamed for their base urges. The media capitalizes on it for nothing but profits. It does society no good to bombard society with issues that they have no control over. We have professionals in every field related to such disasters that dedicated their lives to those issues that would be much better suited to addressing the root causes/problems/solutions associated with them without burdening society with them.

The only reason ATS exists is money. So there's no need to bombard us with these threads...

reply to post by jimmiec


You are missing the point and these 'base urges' are absolutely down to you to control. We feed the beast through our collective desires and then blame the system when change should and can come from us.

reply to post by PsykoOps


Yes, everyone is in denial. You are unfortunately most likely correct.

reply to post by jimmiec
I agree with the point that media are after money. More readers/viewers + higher charges for ads = More profits.

Aside from that though, *media* is a greater extension of people in general. There's no qualitative difference between a new outlet squealing about mass-murderers and the local people doing the same.

As a personal example, in the area I grew up the post office owner killed his wife and it went down as accidental death. 2 months later and he'd cashed in her insurance for a shiny new red convertible 2-seater Mercedes. Its 20 years later and people still say it was murder. Now if we magnify that little incident and scale it upwards, it's natural for the media to report on the things that fascinate people.

Still, some of the media arses should be more intelligent about terrifying populations. Reporting a mass-murderer is a totally different thing to making people fear for the safety of their kids and families.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Excellent point. My point is that the media is cashing in on societies base urges not to inform, but rather for profit. They do not care about the unintended long term consequences. Hollywood is part and parcel of the issue. It is one thing to report on something horrendous that happens and quite another to exploit it for profits.

reply to post by jimmiec
Yeah and I'd say it's the same for people in general. We've had 1000s of posts recently about the school shooting and by far most of them didn't display a lot of care for the dead or their families. Instead they used the children as trampolines to jump off with their own agendas.

People like to gossip and scaremonger - sad but true.

The media is just a bigger, messier extension of the pettiness in human nature. For my money, that does not excuse them from shouting 'fire' in theatres and actively stirring up hatred and fear. People are people but multi-million-dollar news outlets should be accountable and way more responsible for their shtick.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Thank you for your common sense reply. I am disheartened by the lack of comprehension that we are actually doing this to ourselves by allowing violence to be profitable.

I am certainly not the only one that feels this way about the unintended consequences of the Media and Hollywood taking advantage of societies base urges by bombarding us with violence. The fact should be front page news given the circumstances, but since they control what we see and read it is not surprising that it is being suppressed. There is also the fact that people just love seeing violence and are in denial of the fact that it is harming society. I would love to see an administrators take on this issue. I would also like to keep it alive in the public mind. There will most certainly be no real discussion of these facts from the Media or Hollywood. So how do we go about informing the public that they are being used and abused for profit when they obviously love every minute of the violence that is spewed at us for profit?

I hate the media! I got rid of our cable and I still cant be rid of it because it's on the internet everywhere.
The news is important yes but they twist and distort it. They feed into all your fears with their hate speeches.
Everything is about race, sex, anti-religion, and how to hate your neighbor. Now i'm a harcore American but If I really want to watch the news I watch bbc news because they state the news and move on. Why cant we?

It's about money yes, "get those ratings no matter the cost"

They know that if they quit displaying mass murderers pictures on the front page of every news station and quit giving the sob's the fame they want there would be a drop in mass murderers but they wont do it and why not, money that's why. What happened to our country? why is it more interesting for us to see a murderers picture and hear all about his sad pathetic life? rather than what interesting things NASA is currently doing? Why not show news articles on what sounds like a promising cure for cancer? or give a page to the teacher who's changing students lifes over at the local high school? Why... money that's why.

We are such a screwed up society that we would rather sit and eat ice cream in front of the tube while watching a tid-bit on whether or not Madonna is to old to wear that. Jeez I hate the media. Turn if off people, life is wonderful outside the box there are so many wonderous things to be found if you just tune the media out and go find it for yourself.

reply to post by brandiwine14


Precisely. They care nothing for the public's safety. It is about profits and ratings. It is creating a society addicted to violence and the only positive thing that comes of it is huge profits which are only positive for those taking advantage of human natures obsession with violence. There is no upside for society at all. Only for the media and Hollywood. They created a society dependent on the violence we see in society.

Originally posted by SpearMint
The only reason the media report anything is money.

Bingo. Corporate whores, the media and every polititian in Washington except maybe Bernie Sanders.

reply to post by HUMBLEONE


Agreed, Yet there is no concern for the impact on society. That is where the problem lies. There are plenty of things to report about globally. Yet they focus on violence and just keep blasting the public with it. They know it is harmful to society but do it anyway for profits. They can not be called on it because they control what we read,see,hear. They suppress it for profits.