Inspiration

After doing research on the media coverage of school shootings, I was critical of how the shooters were largely casted as victims because of an effort to address other societal issues rather even though their status as victims later turned out to be exaggerated. Despite its intentions to resolve broader problems, the media’s victim framing of the shooters seemed a bit manipulative in how it brought up these issues.

Yet, this process of victim framing also helped me understand something new about witnessing distant suffering. As Boltanski stated, we, as witnesses to distant suffering, face a “moral dilemma” because “having knowledge of suffering points to an obligation to give assistance” (Boltanski, 1999, p. 20).

Boltanski concentrates on “the requirement of public speech,” but I think that the media coverage of the Columbine and Virginia Tech shooters and the ensuing process of collective responsibility shows us that the public takes more action than just speaking out.

But what exactly are we induced to do? In my next page, I reflect on what I think the shootings have helped me learn about witnessing.