Modern killers turn to video to get message out
By Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) - The posting on YouTube of a clip announcing a school shooting in Finland before it happened shows how self-shot videos have become the favoured means for modern killers wanting to get their message across.
The nature of 24-hour media means such videos are also likely to get worldwide attention very quickly in a way which letters never could.
Seven children and the school principal were killed on Wednesday when a fellow pupil opened fire at a school in southern Finland, hours after a clip posted on video sharing Web site YouTube predicted a massacre there.
The YouTube video, set to a hard-driving song called "Stray Bullet", shows a still photo of a low building that appears to be the Jokela High School.
The photo breaks apart to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.
"Go back 50 years or 25 years, they wrote letters and now they've moved onto YouTube," Mike Berry, a professor in criminal psychology, told Reuters. "He's just using today's modern facilities. Young people use YouTube instead of a pen and paper.
"I don't think this will produce copycat situations but what I do think is that people who want to make a message will see this as a new avenue."
The YouTube video, entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007", was posted by a user called Sturmgeist89. Continued...
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