Using Genre Theory to Reduce Mass Shootings

College of DuPage DigitalCommons@COD Student Scholarship English 1-31-2020 Using Genre Theory to Reduce Mass Shootings Meghna Israni College of DuPage Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/englishpub_student_pubs Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Israni, Meghna, "Using Genre Theory to Reduce Mass Shootings" (2020). Student Scholarship. 1. https://dc.cod.edu/englishpub_student_pubs/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Scholarship by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Using Genre Theory to Reduce Mass Shootings Meghna Israni | College of DuPage “Suicide contagion” is a well-established phenomenon in which highly publicized suicides are followed by a spike in the general suicide rate. In recent years, scholars have proposed a similar media contagion effect in mass shootings, a claim that’s supported by a growing body of statistical and sociological evidence. The fact that increased media coverage is linked to an increase in the probability of another mass shooting suggests that news media exercise some power over mass shootings. This paper, drawing attention to the “genres” within mass shootings, explores how news media can rewrite these narratives in order to craft a more responsible response. In 1974, sociologist David Phillips noticed a (Towers et al. 7) and that incidents rise in worrying trend in suicides. After each response to increased media coverage (Lee highly publicized suicide, the national sui- 33). Several have noted the significance of cide rate increased. Theorizing that “fame” being a central motivator of many exposure to media about suicide might shooters (Johnston and Joy 5). All the increase an at-risk individual’s risk, Phillips research connecting mass shootings to named this phenomenon the “Werther media coverage raises important questions: effect” 343( ). Today, the Werther effect is How might news media be contributing to well-documented (Fahey et al. 19)—so mass shootings? How can news media much so that organizations like the Center change the ways they report on mass shoot- for Disease Control and the American ings, as they did with suicides, in order to Psychological Association have released reduce their incidence? media guidelines for reporting on suicide. In this article, I present new answers to Further research has only backed up these those questions, drawing on rhetorical genre guidelines, suggesting that adjusting the theory to explain the phenomenon of content and volume of these reports can media-fueled mass shooting contagion. After influence the suicide rate. In 1987, for covering what defines a mass shooting and instance, the suicide rate in the Vienna sub- the evidence that supports contagion theory, way system decreased 75 percent after new I will argue that three different kinds of guidelines for reporting subway suicides genre—the genres of contemporary news were introduced (Gould and Lake 12). reporting, the genre of news media’s typified In recent years, numerous scholars have responses to mass shootings, and the genre of applied the Werther effect—also known as mass shootings—work together to create media contagion (Gould et al.)—to mass mass-shooting contagion. I’ll explore a few shootings. They’ve presented evidence sug- possible media guidelines to reduce conta- gesting that mass shootings are contagious gion, and the broader re-envisioning of genre 60 | Young Scholars in Writing needed to address the problem, along with kills indiscriminately. Omitting them, how- some of the research that still needs to be ever, means excluding roughly eighty percent done to understand mass-shooting conta- of the data (Smart). In short, determining gion. To start, I will present the case for what is and isn’t a “mass shooting”—and, by mass-shooting media-contagion theory, extension, analyzing trends in mass shooting based on research by scholars in statistics, rates—is a challenge. sociology, and other fields. Still, a variety of researchers have made the best of the available data. Towers et al. The Case for Contagion used a conservative definition of a mass Before we can determine whether a conta- shooting (four or more people killed) and a gion effect between mass shootings exists mathematical contagion model to evaluate (and examine the role that genre may play whether contagion was evident. They found in this effect), we have to decide which of “significant evidence” 7( ) of contagion in the various gun violence incidents that mass shootings. On average, the probability occur each year qualify as mass shootings. of another mass shooting was elevated for This is a much more difficult task than it thirteen days after the original incident (1). seems, because what defines a “mass shoot- While Towers et al. only hypothesized ing” depends on who you ask. How many about the connection between shooting con- deaths (or casualties) have to occur for a tagion and media coverage, others have shooting to be a “mass” shooting? Does a explored it in depth. Using data from the shooting have to be indiscriminate to earn ALERRT dataset on active shootings, the “mass” title, or can it target specific vic- Johnston and Joy found that the prevalence tims? Rosanna Smart, a researcher who has of shootings had increased significantly since written extensively on criminal justice and 2000 and argued that this can be attributed gun policy, covered some of the most com- to media coverage. They pointed to common mon approaches to defining mass shootings characteristics between profiled mass shoot- in a research review last year. Building off ers like narcissism and a desire for fame, an of the FBI’s definition of “mass murderer,” opportunity presented to them by becoming Smart reports that some sources set the a shooter. As Johnston and Joy pointed out, threshold for a mass shooting at no less it’s not uncommon for shooters to directly than four fatalities by firearm; but others send manifestos or pictures of themselves to argue that the threshold should include news organizations (19). Jetter and Walker injuries, or “additional fatalities occurred by took the research on shooting contagion and other means.” Still others lower the thresh- theories about media influence one step fur- old to three casualties (“Stanford Mass ther. Quantitatively analyzing data from the Shootings”) or even two (Smart). Gun Violence Archive and ABC News, they An even trickier question is whether or not concluded that “[their] findings consistently shootings related to domestic disputes, gang suggest that media coverage systematically violence, or other crimes should be consid- causes future mass shootings” (14). ered mass shootings. Many have argued that Looking beyond mathematical or crimi- these shootings are stylistically different than nological arguments, the idea that media “public mass shootings” where the shooter coverage can impact the mass shooting rate Israni | 61 makes sense on a rhetorical level. As argued from and shooters interested in fame have by Richard Vatz, rhetorical situations are that much stronger motivation. largely constructed by the rhetor. A journal- ist reporting news makes two key choices: Applying Genre Theory to what information is relevant enough to Mass Shootings include and how to use that information to Scholars have been discussing this mass create a meaningful narrative (157). Looking shooting media contagion for years, and at news coverage through the lens of Vatz’s they’ve proposed a wide variety of explana- thinking, it’s easy to see how reporting deci- tions as to why the problem exists, but no sions made by journalists or editors can one has suggested studying media coverage shape the very situation that is being of mass shootings through a rhetorical lens. reported on. My argument for media-related mass-shoot- For example: even with the variance in ing contagion focuses on genre, as in the definitions of “mass shooting,” what almost dynamic responses to and formations of a all experts agree on is that mass shootings given situation (Devitt 580). In the eyes of make up a minority of homicides (National prominent genre scholars, genres are not Criminal Justice Reference Service). Public, static categories that texts or responses fall indiscriminate mass shootings are an even into; they are “frames for social action” that tinier fraction. These shootings, while hor- “shape the thoughts we form and the commu- rific, are not inherently newsworthy. When nications by which we interact” (Bazerman, editors choose to make a shooting a head- qtd. in Bawarshi and Reiff). line story, they are constructing that There are three ways thatgenre can be shooting as being newsworthy. The facts used to understand mass-shooting media they choose as being most important end contagion. The first way is to analyze the up gaining importance, but only because overarching genres of news reporting (cable, the news influences public perception of online) that dominate contemporary journal- what is important. Through a phenomenon ism; as dynamic responses to technological called the availability heuristic, viewers innovation and social change, these genres of assign importance to information that is news reporting influence the rhetorical situa- easily recalled or familiar—even when that tion around mass shootings just as much as information is inaccurate or misrepresenta- they’re influenced by it. The second way is to tive (Foster). Frequently hearing reporters study the genre of news media’s individual discuss shootings could make anyone “typified responses” (Bawarshi and Reiff) to believe that shootings are more prevalent mass shootings, examining the genre conven- than they actually are; and when the public tions of reporting on a mass shooting and believes that mass shootings are more prev- how these might contribute to the problem. alent than they actually are, they become Finally, we can understand the way that more prevalent because more people are dis- genre relates to contagion by understanding cussing and writing about them.

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