Violence on the media

Hello! I'm writing a paper about the copycat effect. Is a Digital Media Ethics class, so I am going to talk about how the violent content available on the Internet can "facilitates" the copycat effect. I know that this case is more clear in the Virginia Tech Massacre, but I had to choose Sandy Hook because is the most recent.

I would love to incorporate and quote your opinions. So, I'll leave a couple of questions that I'm hoping to tackle in my paper and that I would love to discuss with you:

1. Violent information about school shootings available online can facilitate others to rehearse these cases? (The copycat effect)

2. How ethical is to publish online violent information and details about the shootings?

3. If is ethical to publish this information, do the violent content available online can "inspire" others to commit similar crimes?

Some points I'd like to mention with regards to the matter:

Adam Lanza made an entire spreadsheet (I think it was in excel format) listing all the spree killings he could find information on, with details such as the amount of deaths, wounded etc. So he was not just collecting information, he was doing it in a thorough, in-depth manner. A manner that even other people interested in the events would consider rather obsessive.

We know Adam Lanza used the moniker "Smiggles" (on the old Columbine forums) and by all evidence also "fuckcomments" (on Youtube). Both Smiggles and fuckcomments commented on the spree killings of the past, often mentioning specific "technical issues" such as the choice of weapons etc.

This is information he got from the media. I'd make a case that because the information about the previous shooters were so detailed and available through the media, Adam was able to compare them (he had an analytical mind, that needs to be said). Then on that basis he would choose the weapons and target he believed to be best suited to cause the most deaths. The information available to him might have made his attack more deadly and more efficient than it would have been otherwise.

Then we have a point that is harder to prove - Previous spree killings may have been seen by Adam as a template for resolving his own problems. Adam was extremely isolated from society, suffered delusions and by all evidence was very unhappy with his life. Perhaps if he didn't have the example of previous shooters, he would have likely just committ suicide.

This is a very interesting point.

I'm reading "Newtown: An American Tragedy", and the author explains this point too. He also says that Adam was specially obsessed with the Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik, and that Adam read his manifesto, available on the Internet too.