Professor Greg Perreault teaches digital journalism at Appalachian State University, and he’s studied media coverage of mass shootings. He says research shows there is a contagion effect and therefore media can actually stop the spread of mass shootings by minimizing coverage of attention-seeking shooters: “In the same way that in the case of a virus we prevent close contact with people knowing that it could catch, I think it’s incumbent on us to think of this … as something that can catch.”