Solace in Sensationalism

While most news stories — like that of Matthew Shepard’s death — aim to stand out and unsettle us, they ultimately end up creating a sense of comfort. Rather than revealing the unfortunate truth that evil can lie next door, they paint wrongdoers as distant aliens, or people with whom we do not associate ourselves. In turn, we take comfort in the fact that people like Shepard’s killers are exceptions to the so-called norm. 

                                     

Another example is the coverage of Columbine, which created the illusion that school shootings could be prevented by giving us clear warning signs and examples of the kinds of students that warrant suspicion. In other words, the media suggested that only “strange students” are capable of such a heinous crime.

But just as the Matthew Shepard case only led to more hate crimes, the coverage of Columbine failed to prevent school shootings. This happens because the media keeps recycling the notion that these are unusual occurrences. Therefore, rather than living in constant fear and anticipation of what is disturbingly common violence, we remain largely oblivious until such violence occurs again.

More disturbingly, the media’s focus on killers indirectly…justifies their crimes, for lack of a better word. Whether it is intentional or not, sensationalism’s function, it seems, is to romanticize the unspeakable. What we fear the most is what we don’t understand. That fear is essential to our survival. That fear keeps us on edge and alert. And the media is stripping us of it by making the unspeakable all too understandable.