School and Campus Violence Issue and Ways It Can Be Solved

Violence on campus’ sadly has become a common reoccurrence, but do we have any evidence why? Is it now just becoming a common thing or is social media making it easier for us to be aware of it? Evidence is showing that violence on campus is more common because of copy cats the contagion and generalized imitation of mass shooting and media. Media outlets need to change the way they share and discuss violence on campus because the journalist themselves without knowing it can be making an already terrible situation even worse.

Copy cats now have some negative connotations but what some might not realize that part of a human's instincts to survive and adapt. When there are skills being learned, the Elements of Argument textbook by Annette T. Rottenberg brings up that we “rely on other individuals’ expertise and knowledge when learning how to solve problems or acquire skills.” Today we have so many ways to do that for example, YouTube.

This media outlet makes it possible for anyone to look up videos to develop new skills, whether it is painting, changing a tire or solving a math problem. Whoever watches it copies what the person is teaching to develop that skill. At some point, we have all been copy cats to gain skills and or solve problems. Social media can show and share so many things that it’s easy to gain a lot of information about things going on in the world or neighborhood. Media reports are widely reported that when a celebrity suicide is reported and broadcasted the fans of that celebrity will copycat and commit suicide.

An academic journal reported that “one study found that almost 40% of the variance in changes in suicide rates by firearms after a celebrity firearm suicide was attributable to the differential distribution of the tabloid newspaper covering that suicide” (Etzersdorfer, Voracek, & Sonneck, 2004). Media can report with lots of information and details that its easier for copycats to gain the information they need to execute. A more recent example would be the Florida shootings, in an article by USA today discussed how after a shooting six-hundred calls were made to schools and police stations reenacting one of the school shooting making it sound like kids were in danger or making threats to seem like there was a potential danger. Media reports give lots of information that doesn’t need to be shared but is shared because it makes the story more interesting.

Do the constant reports of media and mass shooting have a direct link to why they keep reoccurring? In the academic journal, Mass Shooting: the role of the media in promoting limitations stated that “there is a mass shooting approximately every 12.5 days.” Recently they have been discussing a contagion effect where the occurrence of one mass shooting increases the likelihood of another. Contagion is a metaphor that is normally used to describe a temporal spread of behavior with no reasoning, which is where we are at with mass shootings, they keep reoccurring with no exact reasoning for them. A reason or a model that is now more commonly used for mass shootings is a generalized imitation, which means how “one person's behavior influences another person to engage in similar behavior.” Media is starting to have more effects on the problem than they probably are aware of.

Getting the story is not the main goal. In another article it discussed how a policeman when giving his report on the shooting left the man's name out and any details regarding him because he didn’t want the man to feel like he won by being social media ‘famous’ but the media outlet that was reporting it turned around and gave the name and much more information about the shooter. Media needs to be aware of the contagion effect or copycat effect which shows that behaviors are contagious and spread across the population. Because this effect warns us that the incident is more likely to happen again; we still are not aware when it will reoccur.

The big difference between imitation and contagion is that generalized imitation is the learned ability to perform behaviors that are like behaviors observed or described. It is a skill that is acquired at an early age and gradually strengthened through many life experiences. Generalized imitation does not suggest that a person will always perform an exact copy of the model’s behavior; rather, it suggests that the person will perform a behavior with similar characteristics. Which is why we use generalized imitation as one of the possibilities on why mass shooting keeps happening. When mass shooters imitate other mass shooters, they are generally not imitating personally observed events but what was shared over various media platforms, the way that the media report an event can play a role in increasing the probability of imitation.

When a mass shooting event occurs, there is generally extensive media coverage. The media coverage often repeatedly presents the shooter’s image, manifesto, and the life story and the details of the event, and doing so can directly influence imitation. Media coverage of fulfilled manifestos and repeated reports of body counts heap rewards on the violent act and display competence and detailed play-by-play accounts of the event provide feedback on the performance of the shooter. This makes it to where copycats see that if the shooter was successful, they are worth taking notes from and improving on. When it is a failed attempt that is reported it brings the copycats that want to help finish what the other first started but didn’t succeed. Media needs some changes if we want to combat mass shootings.

Media needs to be aware of the effects it has on people based on what they report if they were more educated and aware of the consequences coverage of school violence would be different and the school shootings wouldn’t be idolized. In an academic journal titled going nameless and faceless stated that most journalists are not aware of the contagion effect or generalized imitation. They are reporting and unaware of the consequences. It might seem easy to put the blame on journalist and say they are part of the cause of school violence but then we would have to take some of the blame for not stopping them. Changes needed to be made whether it is limiting what is reported or what can be shared. Putting limitations will not prevent our freedom if there are limitations on knowing the shooters name and history because it protects the people from future reoccurrence of violence then what is the problem? The people do not need to know the shooter life story or how it happened the planning or the reasoning. What is important to know is the survivors are getting the help learning to continue being strong and people learning what they can do to keep this from happening.

It is also important to teach our kids that violence is not a meme or a joke that can be tweeted for likes but a serious problem that needs to be faced. Kids should not be going on to social media seeing jokes about school violence and in a way becoming numb to it or where it is a normal thing that will happen eventually. A shooting drill should not become another drill that is normal to practice because we are waiting for the day to come it is a problem that needs to be fixed. Kids are not taking school violence seriously and not aware of what action can do to others. At one school two kids were asking each other to a dance and they thought it would be funny to ask with a poster that said, “I hate everyone, you hate everyone let's shoot up the dance...homecoming”.

Although this seems like an innocent joke it could have been harmful to other kids being scared of going to the dance and because they posted it on social media if a kid saw it who was in the wrong state of mind now has a bad idea in their head. The kids were punished and suspended from school as well as those who liked the picture. Was that action too far, did the school have the right to take that action? When is a joke too far? We need to start asking these questions and more. School violence is not a reoccurring issue that should be normalized but a problem that needs action now.

In conclusion school violence is becoming a reoccurrence because of copy cats, and journalist and media unaware of generalized imitation and contagion effect. Limitations need to be put on what the media reports, shootings should not be reported in the detail that they are in. Kids should not be joking about serious situations. Limits need to be set and everyone has to be aware of the situations that are going. We need to find answers to why it keeps happening to prevent it and in order to do that action needs to be taken starting with media.