The Media and Copycat Behavior

Today's media is vastly more influential than the media of 50 years ago. Not only does news reach the public much more quickly than in the past, it does so with an immediacy and a visual impact that makes it seem that the events being reported on are occurring right in the viewers' living rooms. With huge, high-definition TV screens adding to the effect in viewers' homes, the media has departed from its long-held charter to use discernment about what aspects of the news to broadcast and now includes any footage that adds to the sensationalism surrounding lead stories. In addition, the endless repetition of the same stories over many days increases the exposure of the public to information that is disturbing and provocative, particularly where violent crime and other deviant behavior are concerned. This paper will examine how the media contributes to deviant and copycat behavior and why the media should curb its exposure of them.

There are several aspects of media coverage that make it instrumental in provoking deviant and copycat behavior. The first of these is its visual impact. As Ericson, Baranek, and Chan point out in their book Visualizing Deviance: A Study of News Organization, "Visualizing, or 'making something visible to the mind even if it is not visible to the eye(is the essence of journalism method" (Savage 459). Visualization makes things real to people, and thus those that watch media news reports of deviant or violent behavior can easily fe

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