the constant skeptic

By now everyone should be sick of this Virginia Tech nightmare, so I offer this interesting tidbit about how the media helps propagate similar copy-cat crimes and murder suicides by flooding their stations with this type of news.

taken from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide

The Werther Effect – Following the 1774 publication of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, readers began to imitate the protagonist’s behavior. They not only copied his peculiar style of dress, but also emulated his more extreme action of suicide. In 1974, sociologist David Phillips coined the term “the Werther effect” to describe imitative suicidal behavior transmitted via the mass media. Research found that the number of suicides and deadly accidents increased following a highly publicized suicide, particularly in the area in which it took place. Oftentimes, those that imitate the suicidal actions relate closely to the original victim, by being similar in age, ethnic background, gender, and/or other demographic characteristics.