Copycat Effect - How Media and Popular Culture Trigger Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines

Description

"Portions of chapters 1, 5, 8, 12, and 15 appeared in Loren Coleman's Suicide clusters"--T.p. verso Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-296) and index A disturbed student shoots up his classroom--and suddenly a wave of mass murder is sweeping through our nation's schools. A young child is taken from her home--and for months afterward child abductions are frantically reported on an almost daily basis. A surfer is attacked by a shark--and the public spends an entire summer fearing an onslaught of the deadly underwater predators. Why do the terrible events we see in the media always seem to lead to more of the same? The author explores how the media's over-saturated coverage of murders, suicides, and deadly tragedies makes an impact on our society. This is the copycat effect--the phenomenon through which violent events spawn violence of the same type. From recognizing the emerging patterns of the copycat effect, to how we can deal with and counteract its consequences as individuals and as a culture, the autho has uncovered a flaw of the information age--a flaw which must be corrected before the next ripples of violence spread Chap. 1. Beyond The sorrows of young Werther -- Chap. 2. Death sells -- Chap. 3. Snipers fall -- Chap. 4. Planes into buildings -- Chap. 5. In search of ancient clusters -- Chap. 6. Fiery copycats -- Chap. 7. Cultic copycats -- Chap. 8. Teen clusters -- Chap. 9. Murders and murder-suicides -- Chap. 10. Going postal -- Chap. 11. School shootings -- Chap. 12. The message in the music and the musicians -- Chap. 13. Cobain copycats -- Chap. 14. Suicide squeeze -- Chap. 15. Celebrity deaths and motion picture madness -- Chap. 16. The magnetism of milieu and moment -- Chap. 17. Coming to grips -- Appendix. A comparative list of events -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index