Tragedy ---> Exploitation

I seem to be really critical of media these days. Today I saw an ad for a special on A&E about the Virgina Tech shootings, called "A Killer on Campus." Don't get me wrong I believe it is a huge tragedy and the thought of it fills me with sadness. However, I believe that it is also being exploited. Whenever you look at a news story there is always an agenda behind it. I don't generally watch the news for a reason. I am willing to bet that CNN was showing endless clips of the event, much like they did in Columbine. Ask yourself, were are they showing the same footage time and time again? Was it about awareness or was it about ratings? Even now the specials are focusing on the killer and not all the victims of this tragedy. They are the ones that we should feel for. They died because they went to school that day... or lived in that dorm. But is anyone spending an hour on the lives of each victim? Of course not... because that is not what sells. They know that we are more interested in why someone would do this kind of thing and that we have this morbid curiousity so we'll watch CNN for hours... or watch a show on the killer. We, as a society, have become so desensitized by the violence that we don't even think about the fact we focus on the psychopath and give him more attention then we do to the innocent victims. And then we wonder why it happens again. It's like the message I saw on a web site, "Is adult entertainment killing kids... or is killing kids adult entertainment?"

Types of Emotional Abuse

According to the Wikipedia article on emotional abuse:

Rejection

Rejection occurs from a refusal to acknowledge a person's presence, value, or worth. It is achieved by communicating to a person that she or he is useless or inferior and by devaluing that person's thoughts and feelings. For example, continually treating a child differently from siblings in a way that is unfair and suggests dislike for the child.

Degradation

This occurs from the use of insulting behaviour, such as ridiculing, name calling, imitating and infantilizing. It aims to diminish the dignity and self-worth of the person, and affects their sense of identity in a demeaning way. Examples include: yelling, swearing, publicly humiliating or labelling a person as stupid; mimicking a person's disability; or treating someone as though they were much younger than they are and preventing them from making normal decisions.

Terror

This is the evocation of extreme fear in a person, done by coercion through intimidation. It can include placing or threatening to place a person in an unfit or dangerous environment. Examples include: making a child watch violence perpetrated on people the child cares about or a pet; making threats to abandon or kill a child; threatening to damage a person's possessions; stalking. Extreme religiousity could also fall under this category; whereby the wrath of God is threatened if an individual behaves a certain way (telling a child they will burn in Hell if they masturbate, etc.).

Isolation

Isolation is the limiting of a person's freedom to engage in normal association with others. It may involve physical confinement. Examples include: preventing an older child from participating in decisions about their own life; locking a child in a cupboard or in a room alone; disallowing a partner or older child from using their own money or making financial decisions; withholding contact with grandchildren; forbidding or strongly discouraging a partner from meeting with friends or family; depriving a person of mobility aids, transport, healthy living. The abuser does this to make themselves feel more important, or gain a sense of control.

Corruption and Exploitation

Corruption involves training a person to accept ideas or behaviour that is illegal or transgresses cultural mores. Exploitation involves using a person for advantage or profit. The grooming of a child to serve the interests of the abuser rather than those of the child may occur prior to actual exploitation. Examples include: child sexual abuse; permitting a child to use alcohol or drugs or see pornography; or enticing a person into the sex trade.

Emotional Unresponsiveness

This entails the failure to provide care in a sensitive and responsive manner and is manifested by being detached and uninvolved, interacting only when necessary and ignoring a person's mental health needs. Examples include: ignoring a child's attempt to interact; failure to show a child affection; treating someone as though they are an object, "a job to be done".