Listen First

The public reaction to the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado tell us a great deal about attitudes and perceptions toward violence in American society. First, there was the intense media coverage during and immediately after the incident. In vivid detail, the public was provided around the clock coverage which included live footage from the school, on the scene interviews with students and police officers, and multiple reports on every possible aspect of the violent rampage. For a public seeking to understand what had happened, such coverage was at first illuminating, but as the days wore on, the reporting gradually changed from news to a perverse kind of entertainment. Within a relatively short period of time, the tragedy at Columbine High School became yet another hyped up media spectacle, which like so many other recent national media events, at times seemed as cheesy and exploitive of the victims.