Media Overload

Jaspenelle
by Jaspenelle
Thu
19
Apr
2007
9:59pm
Posted in sub-blogs:
4 Comments

With the Virginia Tech shootings this week I have had to tune out and turn off the television during most of it, particularly that ranting video of the shooter that NBC decided to show. (Seriously, why was that needed?) I had to do the same thing with the tsunami and Katrina coverage, even some of the flooding stuff on the East Coast from earlier this week. Is it just me or does the media work tragedies to a grizzly death and then just suddenly drop them?

I truly believe in freedom of the press but I really really wish they would use some morals at times. Like with that video and those pictures of that shooter. Put them online and tell people they can look at them there, but do not plastered it all over my local news every 5 minutes, desensitizing me. Because that is all it accomplishes, it overloads my emotions and shuts me down. I know I am not the only one this effects. Maybe it is a bit of a self-preservation instinct too.

I admit some sick part of myself wants to know every gruesome detail. It is the same part of me that slows down when riding past a car accident or takes a little side street to see where the firetruck is going. The larger part of myself really does not want to know and turns my head when I see that killer on tv.

My prayers are still with Virginia Tech but I do not think I can watch anymore about it. I feel the media has become really twisted when it comes to things like this. It disgusts me.

4 Comments

  1. Pyxaron
    Posted Friday, April 20, 2007 at 5:12 am | Permalink

    I wonder how many people get to that point, really. It seems that the news are getting worse and worse each time something somewhat major happens…

    For me it was the 9/11 thing that did it. Haven’t turned on my TV since then.

    The problem mostly is that they just seem to compete with eachother for every single little detail, while people would just be happy with just updated news when new information comes in, and as you said, maybe a “for more information, go to…” kind of thing.

    But even here, we’re getting flooded with interviews of x relative of y who was there when the shooting happened, and tons of other things, as well as all the pictures and videos the guy made. It’s not even something that happened in our country…

    And also, of course, because of that, local news and anything else that could actually be interesting to hear gets dropped because it’s not “important enough”.

    Blah…

  2. Carrie
    Posted Friday, April 20, 2007 at 9:53 am | Permalink

    I feel the same way. I was curious but not that curious. I’m back to thinking about planting.

  3. Heather
    Posted Friday, April 20, 2007 at 12:01 pm | Permalink

    What’s that saying?

    “Nothing draws human interest like human tragedy.”

    Same thing as car-accident-let’s-all-slow-down-to-gawk-as-we-drive-by syndrome. The media beats it to death and beyond because people watch it, and they make money.

  4. the_becka
    Posted Friday, April 20, 2007 at 7:06 pm | Permalink

    I’ve only turned on my TV once on the day the massacre happened, then after about 10 or 15 minutes I turned it off. The coverage on the tragedy over here isn’t so much/intense as in the States of course, but still, for the rest of the coverage I’ve only been reading the newspaper and a few websites. The media can be obnoxious, and is good at branding images into your head, as we all know.

    Of course, we all tend to be curious whenever something bad happens, it’s human nature. However, there is definately a fine line between being “curious” and being the first one to get all the information and then telling everyone all the sick, twisted, (and at times somewhat exaggerated) details.

    In the end, it’s good to be curious when something bad happens so that 1) you learn something out of it (i.e. what? how? why? etc.) and 2) so that hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself again.