Today's front page of the New York tabloids feature the Wesleyan University stalker who killed a female student. The headlines focused on his romantic obsession with the beautiful co-ed.
As I glanced at the covers, it struck me that these sensationalized news stories make the events seem like fiction.
I suppose this is one disturbing nugget about sensationalism, but I just hadn't identified it before.
I recognized the result but not the vehicle. That these stories tended to render readers callous to the news, but I didn't connect that the method of doing so was fictionalizing news. It makes the real seem fake and easy to disregard.
It is strange because it is my understanding that sensationalism grabs the audience's attention. Perhaps part of its appeal is that it allows an audience to more easily process information. It allows them to filter unpleasant information by disregarding it as realistic fiction rather than leaving an impression as something that impacts lives.
Perhaps this is why public interest groups struggle to put a face on problems and convince the public that they could be the next drunk driving, heart attack, or police brutality victim.
Digesting the news can sometimes be difficult. If we simply regard people like the Wesleyan killer as an evil character rather than a person with a history and context, it is easier to dismiss him and his actions as evil, crazy, or isolated.
It keeps one's understanding of situations shallow so there is little chance of developing insights about them. This seems to restrict the public's ability to develop ideas about how to address situations meaningfully. The answers become simplistic (execute, lock him up) rather than thoughtful or nuanced (identify triggers to behavior, explore remediation possibilities, examine possible loopholes in current stalking laws).
I tend to regard fiction stories as beneficial and enlightening. In this context, they seem dangerous.
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A New York City painter observes the city.
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