“Husband, father, coward, killer”: The discursive reproduction of racial inequality in media accounts of mass shooters

Abstract

Relying on more expansive criteria for defining “mass shootings” than much existing research, we examine a subset of a unique dataset incorporating 7,048 news documents covering 2,170 shootings in the United States between 2013 and 2019. We analyze the descriptive language used to describe incidents and perpetrators and discover significant racial disparities in representation. This research enables a critical examination of the explanatory frames utilized by news media to tell the public who mass shooters are and journalistic attempts to explain why they occur. Data were analyzed utilizing a mixed methods approach, relying on content analysis to inductively code emergent categories of descriptions of shooters and binary logistic regressions to analyze the preponderance of descriptive categories when comparing news articles reporting on shootings committed by differently racialized shooters. Our results confirm some recent research showing that mass shooters racialized as white are more likely to be described with kind and compassionate language. With our larger sample, however, we also find that mass shooters racialized as white are additionally more likely to be described with negative language as “bad” or “evil” in comparison to shooters of color. We discuss how these data demonstrate that media reports present a more complex picture of white mass shooters for the public than shooters of color.

The Roles of Race and Mental Health in the On-scene Outcomes of Public Mass Shootings

“…Our findings also provide evidence that debunks the racialized moral panic around mass shootings and mental health touted by the media. White perpetrators of mass violence are often framed by the media as sympathetic characters that engaged in such violent actions due to their mental health problems, whereas Black perpetrators are often framed as a perpetual threat (Bridges et al, 2022;Duxbury et al, 2018). Such (supposed) associations and rhetoric are often peddled by (conservative) politicians in the wake of a mass shooting turning focus on the individual's mental health over the national plague of gun violence (e.g., Mitchell, 2022;Vargas et al, 2020).…”

News Media Coverage of Gun Violence: A Systematic Review

“…An association is made with the Virginia Tech shooting, and the authors note that both shooters are of Asian descent and, irrespective of citizenship status, both are portrayed as foreign, suggesting a bias in associating foreignness with Asian ethnicity. In a broad study of mass shootings, Bridges et al (2022) find that white shooters are often depicted with humanizing language, focusing on their personal history and mental health. This contrasts with the portrayal of racially minoritized shooters, particularly Black individuals, who are more often described with stigmatizing language that emphasizes criminality.…”

“…Four remaining studies explore other factors that may influence the news media's narrative frames. Bridges et al (2022) conduct a broad study highlighting the impact of domestic violence and geography on media narratives. Shootings involving domestic violence are often framed as private tragedies with a focus on interpersonal dynamics.…”