Is it just me or does it seem everywhere you turn nowadays, more and more children are being killed? I mean, like everytime you turn on the news, you’d hear something of a child being in an accident, a school shooting, their parents are insane and kill them, some stranger kidnaps and kills them, etc. What the hell is up with so many youths being killed?
In the case of school shootings, I don’t buy the violence on tv, videogames, music, or books theory. See, I listened to violent music, played violent videogames, read books that I heard were banned b/c serial killers read them, watched violent tv shows, etc; however, do I go around killing people? NO! Were there people in high school who made my life hell, and I would’ve liked to hurt? Yes, but I didn’t b/c when you think about it, that’s just a really stupid thing to do. I just can’t seem to understand what is going on.
The change has been in the national media coverage of these events. You hear about it more and more, but a lot of this went on in the past, too. It just wasn’t talked about. Think about it–until recently, murders and kidnappings were rarely national news. Childhood accidents and child abuse were not subjects for news stories. I’ll offer some examples.
A high school teacher of mine told me that when he first started teaching 40 years ago in a small town in Iowa, a student of his brought a gun to school with the intention of killing the girl who jilted him. The teacher caught him as he came in the classroom door to shoot her and disarmed him. It was considered a sad and embarrassing matter, and it was kept out of the local papers.
In high school 50 years ago, my mother’s gym teacher required each female student to pose nude for “posture photographs” at the beginning of each year. The students never thought to question their authority figure. Only many years later did my mother and others realize that the gym teacher was really just a pervert who’d figured out a way to get the female students to strip for him.
My grandfather was one of three boys. During childhood, his arm was damaged severely in a farming accident and it was useless for the rest of his life. His brother Jake lost an eye in a farming accident. They knew kids who were killed in farming accidents–that happened in every farming community on a regular basis.
I like to watch “Cold Case Files.” I recently saw one on the murder of a little girl by her mother. The mother stomped the girl to death about 40 years ago or so. Local authorities didn’t question her story about how the girl died (I think the mom claimed she fell down the stairs, or something equally stupid). The truth only came out many years later, when the girl’s brother finally spoke up about having watched it happen.
I’ve got bunches more, but the bottom line is, the difference between the bad old days and today is not so great as the media would have you believe.
The media is going crazy in this issue. On the TV last week there was an Amber Alert urging me to be on the lookout for a blue van involved in the abduction of some children in Montana. I live in Saudi Arabia.
A quick glance at historical Australian mortality rates going back a hundred years or so suggests that mortality rates for children between the ages of 0 and 10 (both sexes) have been dropping steadily for all of that time i.e. **fewer ** young children are dying. It’s just that the media’s making a bigger thing of it.
“Journalism” has lost it’s integrity. I rarely do any work for the news networks lately and gratefully so. Even when I got my start in the media almost 25 years ago, it felt sleazy when I had to stick my camera in the faces of people who didn’t want it there. It’s about ratings and the bottom line and sadly I can’t see any return to simply keeping the public informed without revenue being the guiding factor.
That’s why I prefer the narrative form. The audience knows going in it’s just make believe.
As a writer I hesitate to mention that “journalism” is not the same thing as “TV news.” Not that other media don’t have their own problems, but most of the sleaze associated with journalism these days comes from TV, so don’t tar us all with the same brush.
Agreed. It’s the high profile of TV News that maybe contibutes to it’s corruption.
Not to excuse it of course. And Marley23, you’re concern not to be lumped in there speaks volumes as to where you’re heart’s at.
Thanks very much. Of course, I’m a writer and a journalist (I think in that order), but not really a reporter, so I’m in a great position to criticize those things and change nothing. Over the last year or two, even though there are a lot of famous people I’d like to write about, I find myself getting less interested in writing about people who everybody already knows about. I don’t want to be a part of a showbiz pimping apparatus. How I can pursue music journalism, my main focus, with that in mind is something I’ll have to deal with somehow.
Why does everyone connect more coverage of victimized children with media sleaze? I for one don’t think it’s a bad thing. While our current media industry certainly does have many significant faults, I don’t think placing a higher value on a single child’s life is one of them.
Patty and Chuck
*I listened to violent music, played violent videogames, read books that I heard were banned b/c serial killers read them, watched violent tv shows, etc; however, do I go around killing people? NO! *
This just handed to me …
Patty and Chuck have gone on a mindless shooting spree !!! :eek:
Bingo. If the media did general stories about how prevalent child abuse is, or about safety tips to prevent child abduction, that would be great. And, obviously, the Amber Alerts aren’t a bad thing.
But shoving a microphone into the face of a mom who’s just lost her kid to some freak, and asking her all kinds of intrusive questions like “How do you feel?” (which they do all the time), that serves no purpose but to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Also, while the stories of specific child abuse, crimes, etc. might be relevant local news (if done tastefully and respectfully), plastering the victim and/or their grieving loved ones all over the national news, with the stories full of lurid and intimate details, serves no legitimate purpose, IMHO.
Over the last year or two, even though there are a lot of famous people I’d like to write about, I find myself getting less interested in writing about people who everybody already knows about. I don’t want to be a part of a showbiz pimping apparatus. How I can pursue music journalism, my main focus, with that in mind is something I’ll have to deal with somehow.