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The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines [Paperback]

Loren Coleman (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 14, 2004
VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE...

A disturbed student shoots up his classroom -- and suddenly a wave of mass murder is sweeping through our nation's schools. A young child is taken from her home -- and for months afterward child abductions are frantically reported on an almost daily basis. A surfer is attacked by a shark -- and the public spends an entire summer fearing an onslaught of the deadly underwater predators. Why do the terrible events we see in the media always seem to lead to more of the same?

Noted author and cultural behaviorist Loren Coleman explores how the media's over-saturated coverage of murders, suicides, and deadly tragedies makes an impact on our society. This is The Copycat Effect -- the phenomenon through which violent events spawn violence of the same type.

From recognizing the emerging patterns of the Copycat Effect, to how we can deal with and counteract its consequences as individuals and as a culture, Loren Coleman has uncovered a tragic flaw of the information age -- a flaw which must be corrected before the next ripples of violence spread.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Coleman, the media's attitude is "death sells... if it bleeds, it leads." The author, who has written and lectured extensively on the impact of media, mounts a convincing case against newspapers, TV and books that sensationalize murders and suicides, thus encouraging others to imitate destructive crimes. He traces the problem's roots to Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), which spotlighted a fellow who shot himself over a failed romance and inspired many young men to do the same. The novel encouraged widespread use of the term "the Werther Effect" when referring to copycat catastrophes. Coleman addresses Marilyn Monroe's 1962 death, pointing out that thanks to extensive coverage of the star's passing, "the suicide rate in the United States increased briefly by 12%." Other subjects include the 2002 Washington-area snipers John Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, whose actions spawned numerous sniper killings; suicide clusters among fourth-century Greeks; cult leaders Charles Manson and David Koresh, who attained gruesome glamour through melodramatic press perusal; Jack the Ripper—who created copycat killers from the late 1800s into the 20th century—and today's suicide bombers. Although readers may feel there's little they can do to muzzle media destructiveness, Coleman presents his advice to with enough punch to intrigue the public and possibly exert a minor influence on the press.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Dr. Steven Stack sociologist, Center for Suicide Research The media are still largely in a state of denial on how their coverage of death contributes to the violence and destructiveness in our society -- but Coleman's book should wake them up!

Benjamin Radford author of Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us Coleman raises troubling questions about the media's hidden role in perpetuating the very crimes and tragedies they sensationalize.

Tess Gerritsen, M.D. author of The Sinner A fascinating and frightening look at the bizarre outer limits of human behavior.

Kenn Thomas author of Popular Alienation This is urgent reading.

Publishers Weekly A convincing case.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 318 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket Books (September 14, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743482239
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743482233
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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4 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Cutting Edge Study of Media & Violence, September 17, 2004
By 
Christopher Warnock (Iowa City, IA, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (Paperback)
Loren Coleman's "The Copycat Effect" is a well researched and compelling account of how media accounts of suicide trigger off further deaths. Coleman, a well known and respected authority on suicides and the author of "Suicide Clusters" goes into exhaustive detail and carefully documents the phenomenon of copycat suicides, giving examples from Ancient World up to the Kurt Cobain, Columbine and "The Deerhunter".

After reading the extensive documentation that Coleman provides there can be no further doubt of the existence of the suicide copycat effect. What is interesting about Coleman's account is that he never descends into a polemic about media violence and it is clear that the media does not "cause" violence, but rather triggers off these occurrences in susceptible individuals.

The most intriguing part of "The Copycat Effect" is the penultimate chapter where Coleman begins to explore what he calls the magnetism of milieu and moment, delving into why certain places and times attract suicides. This "twilight language" once elucidated has the potential to explain why hundreds of people have completed suicide from the Golden Gate Bridge while ignoring the Bay Bridge and why suicides take place on particular dates.

Highly recommended!

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6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant and crystal clear, September 17, 2004
This review is from: The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (Paperback)
The role and function of our modern day mass media have often been discussed, but never before have the effects on our society, the way we behave and react, been explained in such crystal clear fashion. While the book gives irrefutable evidence that the darker side of our society is intertwined with the way we describe it in our media, it also helps to come to terms with this mechanism. Clearly, understanding is the first step on the road to betterment, and as such this book is highly recommended.
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4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Tries to convince through sheer repetition and not solid arguments, May 21, 2007
By 
D. Norder (Knoxville, TN, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (Paperback)
I was expecting more from this title, especially considering the good reviews it got here, but frankly it seems to fail both on the level of entertaining reading and as an academic essay. Within the first couple of chapters it's already obvious that he's just listing deaths and assorted facts one after another in a really repetitious way. Over and over I wished I could just tell the guy, "We get it, yeah, this person killed himself like the last 50 people killed themselves, now get on with it." But the primary problem with the book is that it links media reports of suicides and killings to other suicides and killings without adequately considering that mentally unbalanced people are just as likely to take drastic and mentally unstable actions even without these news stories -- just at some other time and some other way. If it's not some movie or media report it's from reading Shakespeare or the Bible. Nuts do crazy things, and they're going to pick whatever captures their attention. You can't ban everything. A long list of deaths doesn't prove the argument the author is trying to make, but it appears he hopes that people will be so affected by the long line of tragedies recounted here that they'll rush to pin the blame on the nearest target offered to them to try to solve the problem. Somewhere in here there are reasonable arguments ready to be made and potential ways to get help for people at risk. Instead the author just points the finger at the popular media with only a token concession that this book itself (as well as his other books -- I mean, if anyone should be conscious of the potential for mentally unstable people to do horrible things by no fault of anyone else it would be someone who writes about topics well known for attracting kooks) would then logically also be part of the problem if he was being fair in his moral outrage. But no, the problem is everyone else, even if it isn't. It's just a knee jerk reaction to a very complicated problem with no easy answers.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
A pattern underlies many of the events we hear about in the news every day. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
teen suicide clusters, sniper events, copycat effect, copycat events, celebrity suicides, suicide contagion, twilight language, sniper incidents, fire suicides, copycat suicides, roulette scene, media guidelines, suicide terrorism, celebrity deaths
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Deer Hunter, New York, United States, Heaven's Gate, Kurt Cobain, San Francisco, Solar Temple, New Jersey, Valentine's Day, Golden Gate Bridge, White Sox, Gloomy Sunday, Los Angeles, Associated Press, Clear Lake, David Phillips, Jack the Ripper, Jim Jones, People's Temple, Stephen King, North Carolina, Oklahoma City, United Kingdom, White House, Moses Lake
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