Why I won’t be engaging in any discussion about any mass shooting/suicide

Every so often, particularly but not solely in America, there is an act of mass violence committed by someone or small group who are angry, desperate and depressed. These atrocities which take place in our communities — in our schools, universities and shopping centres — shock and scare us. We cannot blame them on an external force beyond our understanding: terrorists, muslims or communists; these atrocities are born from the very communities they attack.

While we are desperate for understanding and reassurance, for the whole time it remains an active story in the media we can have neither. In the immediate aftermath we have no real idea why the violence was committed. We increasingly have the perpetrator’s own words published online and through social media, we have the reports from a community in shock, grief and fear, we have the opining of pundits and politicians trying to fit the atrocity into their pre-defined narrative. None of these gives any useful understanding into why such an act of violence happened or how we can prevent its repeat in future.

When the community involved most needs our compassion, understanding and space to heal we instead apply the entire media machine to uncovering any tidbit which will give an exclusive slant to the front-page story whether enlightening or not. On top of this are the commentators, while not the paparazzi or reporters camped on front lawns, they contribute to the frenzy of coverage which drives the media to find something, anything, new to report.

It is impossible to have any real understanding of such an event in its immediate aftermath. In our quest to support the community affected and our own understanding we hinder both.

Through all this, there is an even more compelling reason not to engage with the coverage in any way. There is growing evidence that the media coverage encourages copycats and delivers the perpetrators the notoriety they craved. For young people without a sense of meanings to their lives, they can achieve a terrible meaning in theirs and their victim’s deaths. It is the media coverage and infamy attached to their name, beliefs and acts which is one of the factors which makes such violence a viable response to their desperation.

The more noise and coverage of the perpetrator and their stated beliefs — why they claimed to do it and what they had to say — the more we build a culture which encourages such events in the future.

I do believe that it is possible to report on such events ethically and responsibly, but currently any significant media feeds into and supports the counter-productive coverage. I feel unable to discuss such things, even privately, without feeding into this monster. Every discussion on facebook might encourage just one more click through to one more article in one more paper about what happened.

The most effective way we can prevent further such attacks is to defuse the media coverage in their immediate aftermath.

I urge you to also avoid discussing or engaging with coverage of such events, however well judged and worthwhile your comment or a particular article is — and I have no doubt it is — I don’t believe that the benefit outweighs or can be disentangled from the immense cost to our culture and society.

Notice I haven’t dated this post, nor named any of the events or perpetrators. This is a stance I have maintained for some time and over several such acts of violence and I should write it up properly. I intend to link to this post as needed, come any event to which I think it applies. I hope that this post will allow me to disengage and encourage others to disengage without just being another article written about the atrocity. I will not engage in substantive discussion of this post in any public or semi-public forum while such an atrocity is a live media event. If you want to discuss this, wait until it isn’t an immediate concern or approach me privately.