Every so often, a video that creates a sort of viral stir can be found on Facebook. This past weekend, a video created in part by the mothers of children involved in the infamous Sandy Hook school shooting took to the media and created a whirlwind of emotion. The link to this video can be found here. I highly suggest watching the video prior to reading the rest of the article.
If you watched the video in the same way in which I had, you would have only paid attention to the main character, Evan. Of course, the point of the video is to have you concentrate on Evan's personal love story rather than the student planning the shooting in the background. However, it has come to the attention of many viewers, including myself, that the point of the video extends past the idea of recognizing and preventing gun violence. The sentence at the end of the video, "Gun violence is preventable when you know the signs" in itself can become an open interpretation. If I were to take out 'gun violence' and place a blank space, the sentence become all inclusive of many issues. For example, "____________ is preventable when you know the signs." Mental illness? Suicide? Bullying? Domestic abuse? Discrimination? Racism? Sexism?
There are even more pressing issues that are able to fit into the blank space. Therefore, it is brought to the attention of the viewer that not all stories are the entire story. In the case of the video Evan, Evan's story may have been the highlight of the production, but it was the shooter's story that eventually influenced the lives of every other character. As in the real-life case of media portrayal of events, there are many times when the stories that are shown become the incorrect topic of discussion. As the most recent and continuously ongoing media coverage story, the United States election has blocked out much of the media publicity from other important world events such as the 247 people killed in the earthquake experienced by Italy in August of this year, the plane crash that claimed the lives of 76 Columbian football players, trainers and coaches, or the North Korea's fifth and largest nuclear test in September of this year (http://www.mapsofworld.com/events/year-2016/).
As you can see, the story of Evan can be seen as a direct video to prevent and recognize gun violence or an indirect call to notice the signs of many other issues that may be considered background noise. In the case of this video specifically, I believe the central message for the production is much more than gun violence alone. If one thing is for sure, knowing the signs of any and all negative aspects of society starts with giving light to so called background noise.
