Mass shootings and the media: why all events are not created equal

Schildkraut, Jaclyn; Elsass, H. Jaymi; Meredith, Kimberly

doi:10.1080/0735648x.2017.1284689

Cited by 103 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…ass shootings have become their own distinct phenomenon separate from the likes of general homicide and mass murder due to their continued prevalence and the natural draw of media attention to extreme events (Schildkraut et al, 2018). While not a formally defined government statistic, a mass shooting has generally been defined as an incident resulting in the death of four or more victims, not including the killer (Towers et al, 2015;Dahmen et al, 2018;Silva and Capellan, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Background A recent study by Dahmen et al (2018) found that a majority of journalists agreed that the traditional news coverage of mass shooting events has become routine due to perceived formulaic reporting by reporters. However, some mass shooting events garner more initial and sustained attention than others, and traditional media studies have focused much effort on identifying how certain media reports are able to succeed at this (Schildkraut et al, 2018;Silva and Capellan, 2019). One means of achieving both initial and sustained attention is through dynamic frame changing, or emphasising different aspects of a news event over its life span (Chyi and McCombs, 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Bots fired: examining social bot evidence in online mass shooting conversations

et al. 2019

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Mass shootings, like other extreme events, have long garnered public curiosity and, in turn, significant media coverage. The media framing, or topic focus, of mass shooting events typically evolves over time from details of the actual shooting to discussions of potential policy changes (e.g., gun control, mental health). Such media coverage has been historically provided through traditional media sources such as print, television, and radio, but the advent of online social networks (OSNs) has introduced a new platform for accessing, producing, and distributing information about such extreme events. The ease and convenience of OSN usage for information within society's larger growing reliance upon digital technologies introduces potential unforeseen risks. Social bots, or automated software agents, are one such risk, as they can serve to amplify or distort potential narratives associated with extreme events such as mass shootings. In this paper, we seek to determine the prevalence and relative importance of social bots participating in OSN conversations following mass shooting events using an ensemble of quantitative techniques. Specifically, we examine a corpus of more than 46 million tweets produced by 11.7 million unique Twitter accounts within OSN conversations discussing four major mass shooting events: the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting, the 2017 Sutherland Springs church chooting, the 2018 Parkland School Shooting and the 2018 Santa Fe school shooting. This study's results show that social bots participate in and contribute to online mass shooting conversations in a manner that is distinguishable from human contributions. Furthermore, while social bots accounted for fewer than 1% of total corpus user contributors, social network analysis centrality measures identified many bots with significant prominence in the conversation networks, densely occupying many of the highest eigenvector and out-degree centrality measure rankings, to include 82% of the top-100 eigenvector values of the Las Vegas retweet network.

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Bots fired: examining social bot evidence in online mass shooting conversations

et al. 2019

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“…In this case, shifting focus to the victims may not provide a clear solution to addressing the narcissistic tendencies of the shooter, given that details about victims may be connected to shooter motive and these connections may be associated with emotional reactions such as anxiety. Furthermore, as mentioned above, emphasis on victims may ultimately enhance the newsworthiness of the event (Schildkraut et al 2018) and fearfulness may enhance public interest in the event (Levin and Weist 2018). More research is needed to systematically compare the consequences associated with various types of victim reporting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dahmen (2018) analyzed photographs presented in media coverage for 3 days following three school shootings and found that the ratio of photographs depicting each shooter versus each individual victim was 16-1. Research also shows that the number of victims is positively associated with the ''newsworthiness'' of the event (Dahmen 2018;Duwe 2004;Schildkraut et al 2018;Silva and Capellan 2018). Levin and Weist (2018) found that participants who exhibited greater fearfulness about mass shootings expressed greater interest in reading a news story about a school shooting than those who were less fearful.…”

Section: Potential Facilitation Of the Contagion Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Media During the School Shooting Contagion Period

Kien

Begay

Lee

et al. 2019

Violence and Gender

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School shootings have been on the rise and researchers have documented a ''contagion effect'' in which school shootings increase in probability during a 2-week period following an event (e.g., Towers et al. 2015). While there is a growing body of research examining media coverage of school shootings, more research is needed to investigate the role of media coverage during the specific 2-week contagion period. The purpose of the present research was to analyze the temporal changes of themes that emerge in social media throughout the contagion period and to assess relationships between themes that may ultimately facilitate the contagion effect. We conducted an analysis of Twitter posts following the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas, which was preceded by two school shootings the week prior and followed by another school shooting a week later. The results supported previous research suggesting that sadness is associated with greater ''psychological closeness'' to the event. The results also showed that both sadness and anger were strongly correlated with information about the shooter, including the shooter's name. Discourse demonstrating awareness of school shooting contagion was associated with comments about the role of media in school shootings. These findings represent the first attempt to analyze social media during the specific 2-week contagion period. Implications regarding the extent to which these themes trigger the goals of a prospective shooter are discussed.

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“…The relationship between high death tolls and high levels of media attention has been demonstrated empirically. For instance, findings from prior studies have shown that for a mass shooter, more victims killed equals more front page photos of you in the newspaper, more days that you stay on the front pages, more likelihood of you appearing in The New York Times , and more articles and longer articles (based on word count) published about you (Dahmen, ; Duwe, ; Schildkraut, Elsass, & Meredith, ).…”

Section: Increased Desires To Kill Large Numbers Of Victimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why have public mass shootings become more deadly?

Lankford

Silver

2019

Criminology & Public Policy

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Research Summary: Public mass shootings in the UnitedStates have become substantially more deadly over time.We document this increase, offer a model to explain it, review supporting evidence for the model, and present new findings on offenders from 1966 to 2019. It appears that societal changes have led to more public mass shooters who are motivated to kill large numbers of victims for fame or attention, as well as to more shooters who have been directly influenced by previous attackers. They often spend extended time planning their attacks and are increasingly likely to acquire powerful weapons and develop specific strategies to enhance their lethality.Policy Implications: New policies should be aimed at addressing the aforementioned factors. For instance, the deadliest public mass shooters' desires for fame and attention might be countered by a change in media coverage policies. Additionally, the deadliest perpetrators' lengthy planning periods have been associated with more warning signs being reported to police, so that type of information could justify denying many potential attackers access to firearms through extreme risk protection orders and red flag laws.

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Mass shootings and the media: why all events are not created equal

Cited by 103 publications

References 49 publications

Bots fired: examining social bot evidence in online mass shooting conversations

Bots fired: examining social bot evidence in online mass shooting conversations

Social Media During the School Shooting Contagion Period

Why have public mass shootings become more deadly?

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