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A Media Distortion Analysis of Mass Shootings City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2019 A Media Distortion Analysis of Mass Shootings Jason R. Silva The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3275 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] i A MEDIA DISTORTION ANALYSIS OF MASS SHOOTINGS JASON R. SILVA Department of Criminal Justice A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy. The City University of New York 2019 ii © 2019 Jason R. Silva All Rights Reserved iii A Media Distortion Analysis of Mass Shootings by Jason R. Silva This manuscript has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in Criminal Justice in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________________ ___________________________________________ Date Joshua D. Freilich Chair of Examining Committee __________________________ ___________________________________________ Date Deborah Koetzle Executive Officer Supervisory Committee Amy Adamczyk Eric Piza Steven Chermak THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv ABSTRACT This study examines the reality and news media coverage of all mass shootings in the United States from 1966 to 2016. It employs agenda-setting and framing theoretical frameworks to determine the social construction of mass shootings via the mass media. The project uses open-source data to create a comprehensive list of mass shooting incidents. It then identifies all published New York Times articles on each incident. The study summarizes both the reality of the social problem (i.e. incidents) and the news mediated reality (i.e. New York Times). Next, this dissertation conducts a media distortion analysis to determine the perpetrator, motivation, and incident characteristics influencing media selection, prominence, and framing. The purpose is to illustrate the media’s social construction of mass shootings that in turn shapes public perceptions, political discourse, and public policies. The study concludes by highlighting the findings and implications for scholars, practitioners, policy-makers, media outlets, and the general public. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you Dr. Joshua Freilich, Dr. Amy Adamczyk, Dr. Eric Piza, Dr. Steven Chermak, Dr. Deborah Koetzle, John Jay College Doctoral Faculty, Shari Rodriguez, Kathy Mora, Celinet Duran, Dr. Joel A. Capellan, Dr. Maggie Schmuhl, Dr. Colleen Mills, Dr. Laura Lutgen, Olive Lu, Emily Greene-Colozzi, Dr. Shaka McGlotten, SUNY Purchase, Danniel Schoonebeek, Suburbia, Emerald City, Borders Books, Rainbow Sound, Marine Electric, Living Room, Scott Vehstedt, Zoe Wiggins, Uncle Charles, and Zachary Silva. I dedicate this work to my Mom, Dad, and DIY. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi-x List of Tables xi List of Figures xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1-3 CHAPTER 2: DEFINING A PHENOMENON 4-10 Time 5 Location 5 Motivation 6 Perpetrator-victim relationship 7 Victims 9 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL ORIENTATION 11-16 Social Construction 11 Agenda-setting 13 Framing 14 News Constructions of Crime 15 CHAPTER 4: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 17-32 A Brief History of Mass Shootings and Mass Media 17 Inflated perceptions of risk 18 Stereotyping potential perpetrators 18 Ineffective security measures 19 Newsworthiness of Mass Shootings 20 Perpetrator characteristics 22 Perpetrator motivations 24 Incident characteristics 25 Framing the Problem 26 Mental illness 29 vii Gun access 29 Gender grievances 30 Terrorism 31 Crime 31 News media 32 CHAPTER 5: METHODOLOGY 33-54 Media Distortion Analysis 33 Defining a Mass Shooting 34 Data Collection 35 Incident data 36 Open-source data 36 Collecting incidents 37 Collecting characteristic variables 37 Missing variables 41 News data 42 Collecting articles 44 Collecting news variables 44 Inter-coder reliability 46 Analytic Strategy 47 Reality of the problem 47 Mediated reality of the problem 48 Characteristics influencing newsworthiness 48 Determinants of any coverage/frames 50 Determinants of salient coverage/frames 51 Controls 53 CHAPTER 6: THE REALITY OF MASS SHOOTINGS 55-63 Incident and Casualty Rates 55 Incidents over time 55 Casualties over time 56 viii Deadliest mass shootings 57 Mass Shooting Characteristics 58 Perpetrator 58 Motivation 60 Incident 60 Summary 62 CHAPTER 7: THE MEDIATED REALITY OF MASS SHOOTINGS 64-80 Mass Shooting Coverage 64 Total articles and words 64 Articles over time 65 High-profile mass shootings 66 Newsworthiness of Mass Shootings 66 Perpetrator characteristics influencing coverage 66 Motivation characteristics influencing coverage 69 Incident characteristics influencing coverage 70 Determinants of News Coverage 71 Perpetrator determinants of coverage 73 Motivation determinants of coverage 73 Incident determinants of coverage 73 Determinants of News Salience 75 Perpetrator determinants of salience 75 Motivation determinants of salience 76 Incident determinants of salience 77 Summary 78 CHAPTER 8: THE MEDIA FRAMING OF MASS SHOOTINGS 81-96 Mass Shooting Frames 81 Total articles and words by frame. 81 Framing over time 83 Newsworthiness of Mass Shooting Frames 84 ix Perpetrator characteristics influencing frames 84 Motivation characteristics influencing frames 85 Incident characteristics influencing frames 86 Determinants of News Frames 88 Perpetrator determinants of frames 88 Motivation determinants of frames 89 Incident determinants of frames 90 Determinants of Frame Salience 91 Perpetrator determinants of frame salience 91 Motivation determinants of frame salience 92 Incident determinants of frame salience 93 Summary 94 CHAPTER 9: DISCUSSION 97-120 Mass Shooting Reality 97 Mass shooting perpetrators 97 Mass shooting motivations 99 Mass shooting incidents 101 Mass Shootings and Media Coverage 103 Perpetrator coverage 104 Motivation coverage 106 Incident coverage 108 Mass Shootings and Media Framing 111 Mental health frames 112 Gun access frames 113 Gender-based frames 115 Terror frames 116 Crime frames 118 News frames 119 CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSION 121-124 x Limitations and Future Research 121 APPENDIX 125-130 REFERENCES 131-151 xi LIST OF TABLES Table Title Table 1. Description and Operationalization of Mass Shooting (Independent) Variables 38 Table 2. Description and Operationalization of News Coverage (Dependent) Variables 45 Table 3. Fifteen Deadliest Mass Shootings 57 Table 4. Mass Shooting Perpetrator Characteristics 59 Table 5. Mass Shooting Motivation Characteristics 60 Table 6. Mass Shooting Incident Characteristics 61 Table 7. Descriptive Summaries of Mass Shooting News Coverage 64 Table 8. Fifteen Most News Producing Mass Shootings 66 Table 9. Media Coverage by Perpetrator Characteristics 67 Table 10. Media Coverage by Motivation Characteristics 69 Table 11. Media Coverage by Incident Characteristics 70 Table 12. Logistic Regression of Coverage of Perpetrator Characteristics 72 Table 13. Logistic Regression of Coverage of Motivation Characteristics 73 Table 14. Logistic Regression of Coverage of Incident Characteristics 74 Table 15. Robust Regression of Coverage of Perpetrator Characteristics 76 Table 16. Robust Regression of Coverage of Motivation Characteristics 77 Table 17. Robust Regression of Coverage of Incident Characteristics 78 Table 18. Summary of Newsworthiness Characteristic Hypotheses 79 Table 19. Descriptive Summaries of Mass Shooting News Frames 81 Table 20. Percentage of Frames and Number of Articles by Perpetrator Characteristics 85 Table 21. Percentage of Frames and Number of Articles by Motivation Characteristics 86 Table 22. Percentage of Frames and Number of Articles by Incident Characteristics 87 Table 23. Logistic Regression of Framing Coverage by Perpetrator Characteristics 89 Table 24. Logistic Regression of Framing Coverage by Motivation Characteristics 90 Table 25. Logistic Regression of Framing Coverage by Incident Characteristic 90 Table 26. Multiple Regression of Framing Articles by Perpetrator Characteristics 92 Table 27. Multiple Regression of Framing Articles by Motivation Characteristics 93 Table 28. Multiple Regression of Framing Articles by Incident Characteristics 94 Table 29. Summary of Newsworthiness Frame Hypotheses 95 Table A1. Mass Gun Violence Definitions 125 Table A2. Mass Shooting Data Sources 126 Table A3. Description and Operationalization of News Frame (Dependent) Variables 127 Table A4. Inter-coder Reliability Scores 130 xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Title Figure 1. Frequency of Mass Shooting Incidents (N = 275), 1966-2016 55 Figure 2. Number of Mass Shooting Fatalities and Injuries, 1966-2016 56 Figure 3. Number of NYT Articles Published on Mass Shootings Each Year (N = 3,448) 65 Figure 4. Number of NYT Articles Published on Mass Shooting Frames Each Year 82 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This study examines the news media coverage of mass shootings that occur in the United States from 1966 to 2016. Mass shootings unnerve the general public because they violently target large numbers of seemingly random victims in public locations (Lankford, 2016a; Newman, Fox, Roth, Mehta, & Harding, 2004). This gives the perception that a mass shooting could happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. As a result, the public
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