Body Bag Journalism

In Chapter Two of Inequality and Violence in the United States, the author uses a term that for some reason stood out. On page 34, Chasin goes into detail about television news and how its main topic is crime stories. This is not the first time that I have heard the crazy idea of people who relay the news to me are searching for ratings.... and to them it is by instilling fear into me. Stories of murder and rape and missing children fill the nightly news. She then drops a few phrases that are used by the television news.... "if it bleeds, it leads"; "a lurid crime report with a high body count will.. become the lead story, no matter how insignificant its actual news value" and my personal favorite "body-bag journalism" (34). For me, it seems like the medias need for that sensational, violent, and high body count story, helps to fuel the fire of American violence. I'm not saying that the media asks for the violence, or that people who illicit violent reactions are responding to the news; but it makes me think of those killers and rapists who, for whatever reason, are searching for glory in their violent acts. Another thing that I found startling and a little sickening, was on page 33, when the author brings up George Gerbner. He "is convinced that economic motives explain much media content. Violence, he claims, is a 'good commodity for the global market'" (33). While this can apply to anything from sitcoms, to video games to movies; in my mind I created a connection between Gerbner's statement and the channel four news I watch before I go to bed each night. The bottom line for a news service is getting those coveted ratings- they want people to watch... their advertisers who pay those big bucks to have a slot in their evening news, want people to watch. I find it ridiculous that something we have, the freedom of speech and the right to have a free press, is now marketable. We are told the stories that they (media conglomerates) want us to hear.