A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage of Mass Public Shootings: Examining Rampage, Disgruntled Employee, School, and Lone-Wolf Terrorist Shootings in the United States
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0887403418786556 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Jason R. Silva,Joel A. Capellan |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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Article
Criminal Justice Policy Review
2019, Vol. 30(9) 1312 –1341
2019, Vol. 30(9) 1312
A Comparative Analysis of
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https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403418786556
DOI: 10.1177/0887403418786556
https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403418786556
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Public Shootings: Examining
Rampage, Disgruntled
Employee, School, and Lone-
Wolf Terrorist Shootings in
the United States
Jason R. Silva1 and Joel A. Capellan2
Abstract
This study provides a comparative analysis of news media coverage across four
types of mass public shootings: rampage, disgruntled employee, school, and lone-
wolf terrorist. This research analyzes the agenda-setting function of the media
and identifies differences in coverage and the salience of coverage, proportionality
of coverage, changes in coverage over time, and factors influencing levels of
coverage. Findings indicate school shootings and lone-wolf terrorist shootings
receive disproportionate amounts of news media coverage. This suggests media
coverage may be contributing to setting the public and policy agenda concerning
the phenomenon. These findings have important implications for public perceptions
of risk, conceptualizations of potential perpetrators, and the implementation of
security measures.
Keywords
mass public shooting, mass media, agenda setting, school shooting, terrorism
1John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA
2Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA
Corresponding Author:
Jason R. Silva, Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th
Street, New York, NY 10019, USA.
Email: jasilva@jjay.cuny.edu
Silva and Capellan
1313
Introduction
There are more mass public shootings in the United States than in any other country in
the world (Lankford, 2016b). From 1970 to 2014, the United States experienced 282
mass public shootings, resulting in a total of 905 deaths and more than 1,094 injured
victims (Capellan, 2015). Tragically, there appears to be no end in sight, as the number
of mass public shooting incidents continues to steadily occur (Blair & Schweit, 2014;
Capellan, 2015; Hamm & Spaaij, 2017). From 2000 to 2014, there were almost twice
as many shootings than during the last 30 years of the 20th century (Capellan, 2015).
Due to their devastating and recurring nature, there are those who are calling for these
attacks to be treated as a major public health crisis in the United States (American
Medical Association, 2016).
Despite the danger posed by these attacks, not all mass public shootings receive the
same amount of attention. The political discourse, policy discussions, and subsequent
actions in the aftermath of these attacks have revolved around two specific types of
shootings: school shootings and lone-wolf terrorist shootings. For instance, the
Extended Juvenile Jurisdiction Act (in Arkansas), Youth Gun Crime Enforcement Act
(Federal), Gun Show Accountability Act (Federal), and National Instant Criminal
Background Check System Improvement Amendments (Federal), among hundreds of
individual pieces of legislation, have been introduced as a direct response to school
shootings (see Schildkraut & Hernandez, 2014, for a thorough analysis of legislative
responses to school shootings). Similarly, lone-wolf shootings, such as the Charleston
church, Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, and Orlando nightclub attacks have
also sparked policy debates about national surveillance, restricting individuals on ter-
rorist watch lists from buying firearms, and most recently, banning entire populations
from entering the country (Barnes, 2012; Hamm & Spaaij, 2017). The willingness of
policy makers to respond specifically to school and lone-wolf terrorist shootings is
exemplified by President Barack Obama. During his tenure, the United States experi-
enced 123 mass public shootings (Capellan, 2015), and President Obama chose to
make a speech in the immediate aftermath of 14 of those attacks. Nine of those
speeches were in response to lone-wolf terrorist shootings, and three were in response
to school shootings (Korte, 2016).
It is important to ask why the political discourse and policy discussions surround-
ing this phenomenon seem to revolve almost exclusively around school and lone-wolf
terrorist shootings. The literature on media agenda setting would suggest this empha-
sis is a function of the disproportionate amount of news coverage given to these types
of shootings (Chermak & Weiss, 1997). Decisions by news media on which attacks are
covered, and the extent of coverage, shape public understanding of the phenomenon,
including risk of victimization and the potential perpetrator threat, subsequently
informing policy responses and discussions (Duwe, 2005). If the emphasis is a func-
tion of media agenda setting, then research should find a disproportionate amount of
coverage given to school and lone-wolf terrorist shootings over other types of shoot-
ings. Unfortunately, the literature on media and mass public shootings has yet to exam-
ine differences in coverage among different types of incidents.
1314
Criminal Justice Policy Review 30(9)
The current study investigates the plausibility of the media agenda-setting explana-
tion by examining the news coverage of four types of mass public shootings: rampage,
disgruntled employee, school, and lone-wolf terrorist. This research examines all New
York Times (NYT) coverage devoted to each mass public shooting incident within the
United States from 1966 to 2016. This work relies on descriptive and multivariate
statistics to (a) determine whether there are differences in the news coverage among
four types of mass public shootings and whether or not these differences are consistent
with emphasis placed by policy makers, (b) examine whether differences in coverage
have changed over time, and (c) determine whether the differences observed are a
function of the individual and incident-level factors known to influence salience of
coverage, or attributable to the media’s interest in specific types of shootings.
Developing a better understanding of the differences in coverage between types of
mass public shootings is important for several reasons. First, examining news cover-
age of rampage, disgruntled employee, school, and lone-wolf terrorist shootings
allows for a better understanding of policy makers’ willingness to address and/or speak
out about certain types of mass public shootings. It is possible that by highlighting
stories about school and lone-wolf terrorist shooters, the media plays an active role in
influencing the perceptions of risk and, therefore, the priorities of public officials.
Second, this analysis will help determine whether the emphasis on school and lone-
wolf terrorist shootings is warranted, given their incidence and threat to public health.
Research on the content of crime news has shown mass media presents a distorted
image of crime (Chermak, 1994), and this may be the case for mass public shootings.
Finally, understanding how, if at all, media affects public understanding of mass public
shootings is pivotal for the development of better policy and security measures aimed
at preventing and/or mitigating the lethality of such attacks. Placing so much attention
on specific types of mass public shootings ignores the broader realities and complexi-
ties of this phenomenon.
Literature Review
Rampage, Disgruntled Employee, School, and Lone-Wolf Terrorist
Shootings
The 1966 Texas Sniper shooting is largely considered the incident that introduced
mass public shootings into the cultural lexicon (Kelly, 2012; Lankford, 2015;
Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016). A former Marine sharpshooter climbed the clock tower at
the University of Texas and opened fire on students, eventually killing 14 people and
injuring 32 others. This incident received an unprecedented amount of coverage dur-
ing its time and upset the perception of safety in public places (Jenkins, 1994). It fits
the criteria for what Newman, Fox, Roth, Mehta, and Harding (2004) define as a ram-
page school shooting, in that, it takes place on a school-related public stage before an
audience; involves multiple victims, some of whom are shot simply for their symbolic
significance or at random; and involves one or more shooters who are students or for-
mer students of the school. This definition set the foundation for
Silva and Capellan
1315
defining mass public shootings, which includes incidents with similar characteristics
outside of a school context.
Following the Texas Sniper incident, mass public shootings garnered national
attention during the 1980s, after a few incidents of postal workers opening fire on
coworkers. These incidents of workplace violence involved current and former dis-
gruntled employees (Lankford, 2013). In 1999, Columbine reintroduced rampage
school shootings into American culture. Since then, public perceptions of mass public
shootings have been largely based on the Columbine archetype, and extensive research
has been dedicated to this particular type of mass public shooting (Chyi & McCombs,
2004; Muschert, 2009; Muschert & Carr, 2006; Schildkraut & Muschert, 2014).
Recently, research has separated the term rampage from school...
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