"The national suicide rate rose by more than 10 percent the month after Marilyn Monroe died—and that was before 24/7 media coverage."
(Schonfeld,Z. (2014) Did Kurt Cobains' death lower the suicide rate in 1994? Newsweek. [online] 4/4/14. http://www.newsweek.com/did-kurt-cobains-death-lower-suicide-rate-1994-244332 [accessed on 10/11/15])
The rise in deaths in that year is thought to be down to copycat suicides. People wanting to show their dedication to Marilyn, possibly thinking that their death would be broadcast alongside hers. Because of this fact, in 1994 when Kurt Kobain committed suicide there was a lot of fear that there would be a multitude of copycat suicides to follow based on his popularity and cultural reach.
"“When we looked at the completions before and after Cobain’s death and used the previous years and the following years, we actually saw a drop-off,” Jobes said. “And we had a marked and dramatic increase in calls to the crisis center.” (Schonfeld,Z. (2014) Did Kurt Cobains' death lower the suicide rate in 1994? Newsweek. [online] 4/4/14. http://www.newsweek.com/did-kurt-cobains-death-lower-suicide-rate-1994-244332 [accessed on 10/11/15])
There was actually a drop in suicides, which puts into question what was different between the media reports of Marilyn's death and Kurt's. It is thought to be partly due to the speech Kurt Cobain's girlfriend gave after he died. She did not speak about how she missed him but instead let everyone know how selfish she though he was. Referring to the band's guitarist she said; "''He goes: 'God, Kurt was cool'. No, he wasn't.
''Not in the sense of that action. That action had a horrible effect on our family. It's not cool. It just wasn't cool. " So no longer was the coverage sensationalising the suicide but instead condemned it, and with such high authority, in the eyes of Nirvana fans, she made it 'uncool' to die. And I think that her speech had a direct impact on the way people absorbed the news.
April 1994 not only saw the death of Kurt Cobain but it was also the month that guidelines were issued on covering suicides in the media. It was brought up by the medical community the year prior and once it was put into practice there were help lines and warnings alongside the report. It acted as a safety net for reporters, so they could discuss the suicide as before but now would have a hotline number underneath. I think it was a small measure but mental health is a taboo subject and to have the helplines put into the media helped give them the coverage they needed. Almost in a pseudo copycat fashion many more suicide and mental health hotlines have been set up since. So in this example; media of past suicides created a fear that the suicides would be copied, bouncing off of that the media has added some precautionary warnings to the news report of it. Although it hasn't changed the way in which the story is portrayed verbally.
Copycat theory suggests that our actions are motivated by the attention at the end. This is a theory that B.F.Skinner explored in his 'radical behaviourism'. One of his most notable experiments was the 'Skinner Box' in which rats were put inside and if they pushed a lever they were rewarded with a treat, although the first instance of pressing the lever is almost pure coincidence in exploration the following attempts to pull the lever are purely based upon the reward at the end. They learn that an action evokes a response; a reward. In contemporary society fame is seen as the epitome of rewards. We live in a culture of constant coverage and contact. We are more aware of our celebrities lives now that we have ever been before. Their whole lifestyle can be obsessed over and devoured through a twenty four hour connection to the world, in the form of the television. It is seen as a simple flow diagram, get noticed, get famous, be rich, enjoy the perfect life. The romanticisation of fame has become an epidemic. I challenge you to find a children's non-cartoon show that isn't about having some amazing talent that will make you famous, or already being famous. We feed our obsessions down to the next generation.
'Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys' is an experiment where monkeys were paired up and exposed to an object, one test subject from the pair would have been previously exposed but was blasted with air whenever it tried to interact with it. This was done until the monkey was fully deterred from touching the object. When put together and exposed the second monkey would acknowledge the first's fear and hesitance and it then shared the same response of avoiding the object. This shows that a piers actions can heavily influence how you react to things. Without even communicating, just through body language you can understand how others are reacting and then judge how yourself should react in comparison.
In the same case study wild and captive monkeys were exposed to snakes and snake like objects that blocked the monkeys from a reward. The wild monkeys were instantly fearful of the snake and would not reach out for it, whereas the captive monkeys had no problem with the snake and reached over straight for the thing it recognised as a reward. Some captive one's even picked up the snake. This showed that the wild monkeys had learnt the fear of snakes through their rearing from their parents, but the captive monkeys had no reason to fear the snakes and therefore didn't. This shows that the upbringing heavily influences the way the child thinks, especially in relation to fears. Many schools today teach stranger danger and as a result children are more fearful of people they do not know.
In media, shocking things do well and that's
why the media seems to have such a negative view of the world. It's more
interesting when it's a tragedy. This is not a new theory though, throughout
time tragedy has been a popular subject and even more so if it
is true. I believe that this is what started the franchise of horror based
on true stories. A prime example is that of Ed Gein; Gein was an American
man from Wisconsin who lived a bizarre life with his mother who he was obsessed
with until she died leaving him, a full grown man now, alone in their house.
Gein lived in a farming area and so he lived without much interaction with the
rest of the town, earning himself a name in the local children’s scary
stories. Gein was a murderer and a grave
robber, he took women, mainly his mothers age, and would kill and skin them. He
used the skin for many things such as the infamous Lampshade, but also for
wearing and dancing around in. Gein was clearly a mentally unstable man. Once caught the story of Gein went wildfire
through the media, such sickening and gory details were reported over the news
explaining the different things he had done.
Gein remained in peoples minds since it was one
of the most gruesome serial killer stories for a while. Seemingly it stuck in
the mind of the horror genre. Gein inspired a multitude of horror films taking
aspects of his case and blowing them out of proportion to create the next big
horror flick. He inspired Hannibal, for the obvious reasons of they were both
cannibalistic, but he is said to be an inspiration for the character Norman
Bates in ‘Psycho’. They took the aspect of his mother obsession and used it,
Once reported in the media it became another motif for horror, a man who is
very close to his mother must therefore be mentally deranged and in love with
her. It’s now accepted as a character cliché of murderers.
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