Let me give you a real-life example of confusing media coverage. In September 2013, a man in his early 20s, Daniel Jack Kelsall, stabbed another man 20 times to death in the other man’s home.
I really don’t read the paper much, but I noticed the story walking past a shop one day. It was all over the news and papers after the killer was caught, describing him as the baby-faced killer, cold, callous and with psychopathic traits. The paper I read had a good 3 full pages on the incident, describing what had happened and profiling the killer.
The murderer had seen the victim on the street and then followed him home and killed him there. The killer was described as a monster and a vile thing who apparently showed no remorse or empathy.
The fact that he was described as a baby-faced killer, however, kind of indicates that anyone could be a killer. It could be your neighbor, the person next to you on the bus or the person passing you on the street. Of course it could. But reporting about such things without a solution, I believe, creates unnecessary fear.
The thing is, the solution was also in the story. In the 3-page spread, there was a little paragraph that showed how to deal with this situation effectively.
After the killer was caught, another man came forward who said that he also had an encounter with the killer. He had noticed him following him, just like the man that was killed. When he realised he was being followed, he turned around and confronted him. The killer then turned around and ran away.
Think about that.
With self-defence, people are concerned about being able to defend themselves when someone is standing in front of them with a knife or when they are are being attacked from behind in a dark alley. And that’s fair enough, but there are things that happen before that. An assault doesn’t start with a punch in the face, a rape doesn’t start with a rape, a killing doesn’t start with someone standing in front of you with a knife in your lounge room. There are things that happen before that and that is when it is much easier to solve the problem.
To know the solution takes some education. And if it’s not the media’s job to educate you, then it’s yours. And then you can also read the news with a bit of discernment.
[excerpt from the book FemPowerment by Otto Heutling]