Serial killers and media portrayal

There is a strange fascination surrounding serial killers and especially in the United States. Serial killers are being transformed into larger-than-life popular culture celebrities. This is in large part thanks to the Medias hype. The media have had an industry in filling the public’s appetite for the macabre for a long time now. This is not only the news but also the entertainment industry that is selling us this kind of portrayed fear. The news are quick to name people who are revealed to the public as ether suspected or proved serial killers. They often try to name them according to their characteristics or what might make them extra frightening. This combined with the coverage of the trails, maybe execution and their horrible deeds transforms them into what you could refer to as celebrity monsters and makes for a lot of material for the news to broadcast. Especially if there is doubt about the conviction or the sentence. The entertainment industry also have a big part in how popular serial killers are being portrayed to the public. Exaggerated depictions of serial killers in the media have blurred fact and fiction. As a result, real-life killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and fictional ones like the one from the novel and movie called Silence of the lambs, Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, have become the same character in the minds of many people. In many ways, serial killers are for adults what monster movies are for children. It is scary, even scary fun sometimes due to serial killers appeal to our most basic and powerful instinct, our survival instinct. The total disregard for life and the suffering of others done by serial killers shocks our sense of humanity and makes us question our safety and security.