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A Suicide Goes Viral On the Internet
Hugh Pickens writes "Will Oremus reports that Fox News showed a grisly spectacle Friday afternoon during a live car chase when the suspect got out of his car, stumbled down a hillside, pulled a gun, and shot himself in the head. As the scene unfolded, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith grew increasingly apprehensive, then yelled 'get off it, get off it!,' belatedly urging the show's producers to stop the live feed as it became obvious the man was going to do something rash. Fox News cut awkwardly to a commercial just after showing his death and after Fox aired the on-air suicide, Smith apologized to viewers, saying, 'We really messed up.' However BuzzFeed immediately posted the footage on YouTube, where it garnered more than 1,000 'likes' in under an hour, sparking immediate blowback. 'Who's worse? @FoxNews for airing the suicide, or @BuzzFeed for re-posting the video just in case you missed it the first time?' posted the Columbia Journalism Review. Gawker's Hamilton Nolan called his site's decision to post the video 'ethical,' because 'it is news' but research suggests that graphic depictions of suicide in the media can spur copycat suicides, especially among young people, and the World Health Organization's guidelines warn against sensationalizing it. Virtually everyone who has studied it agrees that, at a minimum, suicides should be covered with a modicum of sensitivity and context (PDF). 'Of course it's news that Fox News accidentally aired the video. And you can make a good case that Fox was inviting this type of debacle with its habit of airing live car-chase feeds. But Fox couldn't have known that it was about to air a suicide. BuzzFeed, by contrast, knew exactly what it was doing,' writes Oremus. 'That might be good business for BuzzFeed, but it's hard to see the benefit for anyone else.'"
Before anyone starts jumping on Fox News for whatever axe they have to grind with them, please substitute Fox News with "CNN" or "MSNBC" and ask yourself if your vitriol would be just the same.
in a world full of war for the purpose of promoting democracy where thousands of civilians die from the fighting or aftermath? Oh yah we don't directly see it so its ok.... Out of sight out of mind.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
So tired of the "Darwin" meme. It expresses a sense of smug superiority that is entirely undeserved.
strictly from a visual perspective
Unless the viewer is a psychopath (in the clinical sense) that is never how it works.
Grow a pair
Grow up.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I work with youth, and so I feel your pain on this one. In my local town last year there was nearly a dozen suicides, and none of them were broadcast or publicized in any way. That being said, the research, professionally and anecdotally, shows that if you broadcast or glorify the person who has committed suicide, there will be others. Almost do a disproportionate level. Even without the broadcasting, there were copycats or others suicides that were clearly and directly linked to prior ones. It has a lot to do with developing minds, and how some teenagers have a fragile sense of self-worth. Their social setting drastically affects the way they view the world, and if all they want is to be noticed, and they see someone who has committed suicide being glorified, or even lifted above the situation, some people take action to get the same attention. It's a tricky line to walk, and one that is very much in contention. One thing to make clear though: Just because it's not publicized doesn't mean it is swept under the rug. Counsellors, friends, communities are very much involved in those who are left in the wake of a suicide, and that effort goes unpublicized as much as the suicide itself. It is a long, hard journey for everyone involved.
Ironic, isn't it?
Yes, nobody who dies from suicide could possibly have ever contributed anything to the benefit of society.
Let's face it: suicide happens. You'll get far more suicides happening by not talking about it than you will by revealing the truth to people - even if a few copycat suicides in the immediate aftermath are inevitable. Hint: people don't just kill themselves because they've seen a death, but may simply have seen a method for doing something they wanted to do anyway.
This is true, but they've noticed correlations between different ways that suicide is discussed and the suicide rate following it. The suicide rate tends to go down if it is discussed in a way that includes urging people who are thinking about it to get help. However, when someone's glorified for their suicide and no one says to get help if you're thinking about it, suicide rates tend to go up. Of course, that's all just correlation, not causation, but it is interesting.
I could have been much, much worse it could have been a woman exposing her breasts after she got out of the car. Then Fox News would be in real big trouble.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
The good news is that invoking the Darwin meme doesn't make one immune from it.
Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
Darwin Award is fine. It's just when people use the title where it wouldn't apply. You don't simply kill yourself and get an "award." You kill yourself in some kind of spectacularly stupid way, that results in your accidental death, implying that you just took place in natural selection.
A dude shooting himself in the head is just a suicide.
That's funny, because the societies that protect the weak tend to be the strongest in the world, while those that persecute the weak tend to end up in the dustbin of history. Perhaps this is because a compassionate society that cares for its weaker members makes everyone stronger. And perhaps mental illness doesn't hurt society nearly as much as the traits of indifference and contempt.
The music industry, in attempting to sell the world "the next nirvana" was what ruined POP MUSIC during the 90's. If that's all you listened to, that's your fault. Kurt Cobain was an artist in the truest sense of the word, caring about nothing other than creating what he saw as art.
When a society is successful, it finally has the luxury of protecting its weakest members. You may have your cause and effect reversed.
why does it need to be removed? if you don't want to see it - don't watch it.
if you don't want other people to see it - 1. don't post links to it and 2. stop trying to control what other people can and cannot willingly see.
i spent five minutes thinking and all i got was this crappy sig