Sunshine Recorder

How the media shouldn’t cover a mass murder

Every time there’s a mass shooting, I remember this piece of footage from Charlie Brooker’s BBC series Newswipe. In it, a forensic psychiatrist outlines the guidelines for news reporting of such a tragedy, assuming that your aim is to prevent further ones. He says:

If you don’t want to propagate more mass murders… don’t start the story with sirens blaring. Don’t have photographs of the killer. Don’t make this 24/7 coverage. Do everything you can not to make the body count the lead story. Not to make the killer some kind of anti-hero. Do localise this story to the affected community and as boring as possible in every other market.

Here are this morning’s front pages. Judge for yourself who has done a good job of heeding that advice, and who hasn’t.