海角大神

As everyone from politicians to parents of听slain children search for answers in the Colorado shooting, many observers say the high-profile event is just the latest example of both the progress and听problems in听dealing with violent, media-driven听events.

We听live in a society driven by increasingly sophisticated and powerful information technology that allows us to know details about everything听virtually immediately, says听 UCLA assistant professor and psychiatrist Dr. Reef Karim, adding, 鈥渁nd this has a good and a bad side.鈥�

Cell phone video clips from the Aurora movie theater provided a nearly instantaneous听real-time window into events as they unfolded. Television coverage has听blanketed everything from听Monday鈥檚听court appearance by shooting suspect James Holmes to the personal stories of the victims and survivors.

Comfort in response to the shootings in Colorado

The positive side of such immediate, up-close contact, he says, 鈥渋s that we collectively can respond听as a society, we can send money and relief and bring people in to help because we can relate right away.鈥澨�

The downside, he says, 鈥渋s that听we are seeing it all听through the lens it is being presented to us in.鈥� This means we are being drawn through the event according to the biases and prejudices of the technology and the听people behind it.

鈥淏y and large,鈥澨齢e points out, 鈥渢hese media are driven by ratings and the need to attract the largest audience,鈥澨齨ot educate or uplift them.

We have shifted from a cool medium that provides some distance to the 鈥渉ottest possible,鈥� says Bernard Luskin, president-elect of the media psychology division of the American听Psychological Association听in Washington. 鈥淭his means we are right in the midst of events now,鈥� he says.

But as technology progresses, he says he sees little progress in the ability to respond and handle the deeper implications of violence.听

鈥淭he information is geared towards the needs of the people delivering the information rather than the deep, emotional needs for empathy and sympathy that the victims of real violence require,鈥� he says.

At the same time, there has been marginal progress in certain areas, points out Dr. Karim.

Compare the coverage of the victims in the Colorado and Arizona shootings to the听focus of the coverage in the Penn State scandal.听

In the case of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who was found to have ignored warnings about child sexual abuse, he says, 鈥渨e are very uncomfortable with the details of those victims' lives. It鈥檚 one of the last听taboos with a significant stigma听attached听to it, and we don鈥檛 want to know the details of its impact or what actually happened.鈥澨�

As a result, he points out how much the coverage was geared toward the penalties imposed on the university and the impact they will have on the school and its football team. Innocent bystanders, such as Penn State students, in the scandal may suffer, he notes, 鈥渂ut they are not the real victims in that case.鈥�

But听the sort of听psychological insight that can be provided in a swiftly moving media environment is limited,听says Mindy Utay, a former lawyer who is now a psychotherapist and blogger for the Huffington Post.

鈥淯nfortunately,鈥� she says via e-mail, 鈥減op-psychology has given most Americans a superficial and often inaccurate idea of human emotions and motivations.鈥�

She says Americans in general are much more sympathetic to the idea of mental illness than they were even a decade ago 鈥� especially now that mood disorders such as depression, postpartum depression and bipolar disorder are "out of the closet" 鈥� but they tend to view violence in simplistic terms.听

鈥淭he shooter was bullied [Columbine] or the shooter flunked out of his Ph.D. program and felt like a loser [Aurora].听There's a lot of pop-psychology input that shapes how Americans view violence 鈥� and much of it is misguided,鈥� she adds.听听
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Greater understanding does not mean听all victims are equal, points out San Diego psychiatrist Dr. David Reiss, who specializes听in borderline personality disorders. Even in the cases where the genuine suffering of victims is highlighted, mainstream media听focus on what will drive ratings.听

鈥淭he more mundane suffering of genuine victims of听everyday violence will not get the same kind of coverage that the homeless man whose face was cannibalized in Florida did,鈥� he notes. Proliferating media also give individuals the opportunity to听find their own level of response, he points out, which can be both good and bad.

You can locate like-minded people to help in a terrible situation, he says, 鈥渙r you can find a group of people to听support your worst emotions and go deep into the dark side.鈥�

Comfort in response to the shootings in Colorado