One may find an interest starting in early middle school... For me, that's where I remember first having friends interested in serial killers. I can recall becoming interested in knowing who Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer were at this time. You can look around a see it all throughout America. Serial killer culture is practically an integrated part of American society now. Due to serial killer culture being so heavily ingrained in American culture, the amount of media available for me to learn about them was immense. My friends and I wanted to know especially why they were they way they were. They were human beings just like us, right? What caused them to be the way they were? To do what they do? However, news media seems to sensationalize something a bit different from serial killers now: mass murderers. We ask the same question about them. Why did the recent Orlando shooting happen? What motivated someone to drive a truck into a crowd and start shooting them in France? What caused a group of movie-goers in Aurora, Colorado to be attacked at the premier of "Dark Knight Rises"? How come two high school students decided to sneak in guns and shoot at classmates at Columbine?
The existence of serial killer culture rests on the shoulders on news media. Even looking back to America's earliest serial killers, one can observe how the news sensationalized the tragedies to pull in more readers. Take a brief look at how H.H Holmes' crimes became sensational, or leap forward a few more decades and see how Albert Fish's crimes were presented like a gripping mystery novels. Serial killer culture became huge in modern America though during the 1970s. News television channels became huge during this time. This allowed the American public to become more engaged with these killers, to reach out and attempt to understand them and for some, to become obsessed with them. This also allowed the news media to sensationalize serial killers in a new way such as the Manson murders which went on for some time since the end of 1969. This lead to having the public influenced in various ways, in one way to the point of obsession. This can become apparent by the presence of Ted Bundy "groupies" at the time of his trail. Ever since then, serial killer culture has evolved to movies, television series, countless books, music and even collectibles and "murderabillia." These become methods for the American public to become more understanding of serial killers. In sort, they attempt to sympathize with them. This culture all spurred from how news media reported and covered serial killers.
It seems now that news media tends to sensationalize a new type of devastation: mass murder. Every time one occurs, it seems that the coverage about it gets dragged on for weeks, assumptions and claims are made before any real facts get released and they tend to attempt to cover them with intense detail and really strike viewers' emotions to their core. Though the amount of discourse is nowhere near the same level as serial killer culture provides, the possibility exists. We already have a video game based off the Columbine massacre, after all. Will the American public start to attempt to sympathize with mass murderers in the various ways we try to with serial killers? The media will continue to sensationalize any mass murders from here on out, but it is truly up to the American public to decide if these devastating acts and monstrosities of the world will take the same path as the dark realm of serial killings in American culture.
