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LIFESTYLE

45% Think Media Coverage Encourages Copycat Killers

Americans tend to believe the media pay too much attention to mass murders and that their coverage prompts others to commit violent crimes.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of American Adults believe the media cover mass murders like the one in southern California too much, while just 13% say they don’t cover them enough. One-in-three (33%) says the level of media coverage is about right. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on May 30-31, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology.

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We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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