The Same Old Story, the Same Old Blame.

• Author: SALTZMAN, JOE
• Position: Media's influence on society - Brief Article

IT PROBABLY GOES BACK to our earliest ancestors. When something horrible happens in our community, we want to find a reason, an explanation for the horror. Because if we don't, that means that somehow things happen to us over which we have no control and no understanding. So, when a couple of teenagers kill at random, we have to find an explanation. In the 20th century, the explanation for such behavior always has been the media--from the tabloid press to the dime novels to silent films; then sound movies, radio, comic books, television, and now video games and the Internet. In addition, adult entertainment, sometimes labeled pornography, is always one of the usual suspects.

The ritual is so familiar that any viewer or reader knows it by heart--the horror occurs; the reaction sets in. For years, comic books were the great villain blamed for all of society's ills. Today, video games seem to be the main culprit. And if not video games, movies and TV. Some blame the individuals involved, the society that created those individuals, the parents or friends or teachers involved. Others blame religion or the lack of religion. In shooting incidents, many blame the National Rifle Association and the easy accessibility to guns. But the main brunt of any criticism is often focused on the newest and most technologically advanced piece of the media--violent movies, violent television shows, violent video games, violent web sites.

What few seem to realize is that the reason the Colorado shootings became news around the world--the reason newspapers, magazines, television, and the Internet were saturated with the killings of 13 people in a typical American high school--was the rarity, the unusual how-could-this-have-happened nature of the story. One of the traditional definitions of news is that it means an extraordinary event: a plane crash; a massive earthquake; a devastating storm; a serial killer; a football hero on trial for murdering his ex-wife; the kidnaping of a rich family's son; and, yes, the killing of innocent high school teenagers by their peers. When that rare occurrence takes place, we are shocked, mystified, and saddened, and then angry. We must find a reason why.

Logic dictates that, if movies, television, video games, and the Internet are responsible for this kind of behavior, then why is this event so unusual? If these media so corrupt the minds and hearts and souls of America's young people, then why doesn't this kind of activity happen...