Mass shooters have long sought to hijack mass media platforms to promote themselves, their evil acts and their agendas. So did Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine black worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Columbine And Cable NewsThe Columbine, Colorado, massacre in 1999 inaugurated the era of mass murders designed for mass media consumption. Anders Breivik Needs Internet AccessIn the decade after Columbine, the internet and social media emerged as mass media platforms that extremists could use to find inspiration and to attract a following. Bowers didn’t broadcast the shooting, but he appears to have been radicalized to violence on anti-immigrant memes via an internet connection.

Source: Huffington Post March 16, 2019 14:48 UTC