The Virginia Tech shooting, which has dominated the news this week, is now provoking a lot of soul searching and reflection. The obvious response is , “Why would someone do such a thing.” The media package Cho Seung-hui sent to NBC may go some way to explaining why. Or does it? Most people now think that the killer’s video diary is just evidence of this person being very ill.
The decision by NBC to broadcast this package has been criticised by some. The footage must have been particularly horrific for the victims' families. It is probably worth pointing out that NBC is a business whose objective is get high ratings. Did this influence their decision to show this stuff? Probably.
The finger has also been pointed at film makers. In one of the killer’s now infamous poses, he bears some resemblance to the above image. The film in question is Oldboy, a South Korean film. Will the film’s director Chan-wook Park become forever linked to what happened at Virginia Tech? After the Colombine shooting several years ago, Marylyn Manson was blamed for what happened by some, because the killers listened to his records.
The fact is that lots of people like to watch violent films and listen to weird records. Surely it is what Cho Seung-hui did that counts, and not the movies he watched or the records he listened to.
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