{"id":1917,"date":"2016-07-23T16:05:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T14:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.actvism.org\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2020-11-06T17:48:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:48:57","slug":"massenmedien-amoklauf-muenchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.actvism.org\/en\/latest\/massenmedien-amoklauf-muenchen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sensation of “Terror” – Mainstream Media and Munich Shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

The Sensation of \u201cTerror\u201d \u2013 Mainstream Media and the Munich shooting<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Friday, July 22, was a sad day for Munich and Germany. Thanks to the mobility and technology of the mainstream media we could all take part in the proceedings. This enabled us to experience what actually happened. We could inform and maybe calm ourselves. However, mainstream media wasn\u2019t able to prevent things from heating up as rumors and fear spread. On the contrary, it took part in the speculation and even fueled it, while ignoring reminders by the police on Twitter to not publish pictures of police forces in the line of duty:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

acTVism Munich live commentary 22.07.2016<\/em><\/p>\n

\"acTVism
” N24 shows once again that sensationalism has higher priority than facts and information for the mainstream media. The Police repeatedly asked via Twitter to not show live videos of the attackers, yet none complied. As we are writing this statement we are seeing more scenes of the shooters.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tweet asking not to take photos or videos of police action in English:<\/p>\n

\"PMFotos\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The police also asked to not speculate based on assumptions. Presumably to avoid chaos for Munich’s residents:<\/p>\n

\"PMSpeculations\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

acTVism Munich published a link to show that N24 did not follow the request of the police. The sensationalist way in which they reported, which resembled the way live sports events are reported, has to be addressed.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/p>\n

Rhichard Gutjahr, a journalist working for the mainstream media, also posted live pictures of the ongoing police operation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"123\"<\/p>\n

ZDF (German public-service television):<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

In the defense of Gutjahr one may note that he deleted the Twitter post<\/a>s. If this had been a \u201cterror\u201d attack, as was continuously speculated by mainstream media, such action could have had consequences for ongoing investigations and operations. As far as we know, the protagonists won\u2019t face any penalty for not following the police\u2019s request. In other words: threatening national security through unfounded action won\u2019t have any repercussions. It\u2019s the kind of absolution a regular citizen will never experience.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0Commentary from a member of acTVism Munich\u2019s editorial team:<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

The situation that was created for a Munich citizen like myself was frightening and filled with chaos. Media discussing false reports for hours instead of informing about the facts. Instead of asking people to remain calm, sentences like \u201cMunich is under attack\u201d are continuously dropped, even by ARD and ZDF <\/span><\/span>[Germany\u2019s main public broadcasters]<\/i><\/span><\/span>. Followed by the consulting of terrorism experts, who talk for hours about many different possible motifs and scenarios, planting any catastrophe imaginable in your head and fueling the panicky atmosphere. No matter how often words like \u201cprobably, perhaps, possibly\u201d are used, it does not add any positive contribution to the situation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ZDF\"<\/a>
Elmar Theve\u00dfen – ZDF Terrorism Expert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Police<\/a><\/p>\n

And because a gap with nothing to report is bound to open up, because there was definitely nothing new to report, and because you couldn\u2019t possibly ask the terrorism expert the same question for yet another time, the decision is made to simply show pictures of W\u00fcrzburg, even though there wasn\u2019t and still isn\u2019t any evidence that there\u2019s an Islamist background. Up to this point all ties are simply speculative. A concrete connection to ISIS couldn\u2019t be established yet. Still, a connection is established between the two acts.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Note: We tried to follow the discussions and comparisons with the W\u00fcrzburg attack. In these discussions Iraq\/Syria and the refugee crisis were included. Click here for the ZDF media library<\/a>, and here for the N24 media library<\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When police announced, that it had been a lone shooter, reports about three possible perpetrators could be seen on TV for another 20 minutes, until, finally, the news was picked up on, with claims that it had only been published \u201cseconds ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Showing covered corpses and injured people wasn\u2019t just disrespectful towards the victims and their families, but another case of ignoring police notices:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"PMRespect\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n