I Shot The Sheriff: Why do news stories focus on perpetrators rather than victims?

On Wednesday 17th June 2015, at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, nine people were shot dead. A 21-year-old Dylann Roof has been named as the perpetrator, with witnesses saying he spent an hour inside the church before opening fire. He then drove away.

Now, thanks to the media, we know everything there is to know about Dylann Roof: his birthday, his birthplace, his criminal record, his family members, even what he was wearing in his Facebook profile picture. This man is famous (at least for the next few weeks). Everyone knows his name.

But what about the victims? Mentions of them personally are few and far between. The lack of media coverage of the victims themselves seems to me to be, at best, inadvertent and at worst downright offensive. I couldn't name a single one of the nine victims from the Charleston Shooting, yet the man who started it all has his life-story splashed all over the cover of every major newspaper in the world.

What's more, instead of being referred to by name, many of the newspapers simply refer to the congregation of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as just that: victims. "Six women and three men were killed". Ageless, family-less, generic victims. No one knows what they were wearing in their Facebook profile pictures. Except their families, of course. Their loved ones, lying at home, devastated after having their family members massacred by a white terrorist America don't want to call a terrorist. Why do we continue to focus on perpetrators who committed appalling acts as opposed to those who have lost their lives?

Sadly, this issue is not limited to the Charleston Shooting. Back in 2012, Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people on Utoya island in Norway. For weeks, Brievik's picture was on front pages, starting with the incident itself and then moving onto his upbringing and life-style, all the way through to his trial and ultimate conviction. But it doesn't stop there. As recently as the 22nd of February this year, Breivik was the subject of yet another Guardian news story, as it was announced that Asne Seierstad, a Norwegian author, had written a book about the incident based on testimonies.

I am not saying that one cannot find the victims of any these crimes if they choose. Many of the national newspapers do eventually produce a comprehensive list of the victims. What is more, I fully support the argument that the victims' families, understandably, want privacy at the devastating time in their lives. One might make the argument that it is easier to refer to just one shooter, as opposed to the, sometimes huge, number of victims, but I believe this to be selective use of information. A counterexample is this: newspapers across Britain report the football scores every weekend, for every major club game. There are twenty Premier League clubs alone, which means that the media report on ten games of football a weekend (not including all other sports fixtures). And that's just a game.

Nor am I saying that newspapers shouldn't mention the perpetrators at all: one has to critically evaluate what went wrong in order to implement future change. However, there is no excuse for allowing the victims to be faceless.

So my plea to newspapers is this: please try and honour the wishes of the deceased's family. Privacy, if that is what is called for, means privacy. Parading the identity of Dylann Roof on newspapers every morning does not qualify. By all means, discuss how incidents such as these needs to security reforms, but refer to victims by name, not by insensitive generic statements that leave them with no identity and no dignity. Ask the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church or the families of the Norwegian victims what coverage they would like to see, and then honour those wishes. Let's make a concerted effort to stop focussing on the appalling acts of a terrorist, and turn our eyes to those who need our help and support. 

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For those who are interested, the nine victims of the Charleston Shooting, with their corresponding ages, are as follows. More information can be found here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/18/charleston-church-victims-profiles

Clementa Pinckney, 41.

Tywanza Sanders, 26.

Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45

Cynthia Hurd, 54

DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49

Rev Dr Daniel L Simmons Sr, 74.

Ethel Lance, 70.

Myra Thompson, 59.

Susie Jackson, 87.