@StumpTownStu
"Would you like me to also list cases that involve white males that didn't make the headlines? I'll do it."
Yes, I would like to hear your list of white guys with ARs that did not make the news. Then compare it to the mass shootings every week that happen that do not make the continuous news cycle.
Beau Wilson May 15, 2023
Joseph Eaton April 18, 2023
An example of how the Media blows these out of proportion, especially to crime and other shootings:
Statistics have shown that one in four Americans perceive mass shootings to be the greatest gun violence threat facing their communities, but the study showed that shootings with multiple victims occurred just 22 percent of the time. However, mass shootings were almost six times as likely to make the news.
“This skews our focus toward things like active shooter drills in schools, and away from the kind of community investment that we need to prevent the forms of gun violence that are so much more common,” Kaufman said.
There were some differences on the city level data that the study uncovered. Philadelphia had the most shooting victims in 2017 with 1,216 (compared to 407 in Cincinnati and 178 in Rochester), but those victims were also covered the least: only 46 percent of the time (compared to 55 percent in Cincinnati and 65 percent in Rochester).
“I think the news media in any given market has limited space for reporting on violence, and so in areas where violence is common, there's going to be a lot of underreporting. The opposite could be true as well: In areas with little violence, the reporting may be disproportionate,” she explained.
Literature Review
Existing literature reveals several well-established trends related to the media, crime, and race. Specifically, crime comprises a large portion of media content and this excessive coverage elevates the public’s fear of crime by focusing disproportionately on random acts of violence instead of the offenses that actually comprise the majority of criminal activity: less serious property crimes (Callanan, 2012). Historically, mainstream media appeals to a predominately white, middle- class audience while racial and ethnic minorities are often underrepresented or portrayed in negative roles (Callanan, 2012; Tukachinsky, 2015). Additionally, media coverage of mass shootings is often error-laden and provides viewers with a distorted view of the shooter, the victims, and the actual event (Huff-Corzine, McCutcheon, Corzine, Jarvis, Tetzlaff-Bemiller, & Weller, 2014).
Popular Beliefs about Race and Mass Murders
Media coverage of mass shootings notably varies based on the race of the shooter and therefore influences public perception of crime related to race. Lankford (2016) explored the popular assumption that most mass murderers are white by assessing data from 242 cases of mass murder from 2006 to 2014 in the United States involving 308 mass murderers. After also comparing this to data detailing the race and ethnicity of 87,052 other murderers, Lankford (2016) concluded that the racial composition of mass murderers and all other murderers is approximately equivalent, with a disproportionate amount of black and Latino persons in each category.
White offenders comprise a larger portion of mass murderers, which may be why many people assume that the majority of mass murderers are white. Lankford (2016) further explains that racial and ethnic stereotypes negatively influence viewers’ beliefs regarding people who commit crimes, and these stereotypes can be either conscious or unconscious biases. Lankford’s (2016) article provides a foundation for the discussion of several sources that expand on particular instances of stereotyping.
Previous literature establishes that the media has the power to influence public perceptions about crime and promote racial stereotypes (Callanan, 2012; Tukachinsky, 2015). Although researchers and the public both question the reliability of information coming from the media, Huff-Corzine and colleagues (2014) observed that the media is still used as a data source for mass murder statistics in the United States. Therefore, they conducted a study to compare mass media data sources on shootings to two official crime data sources: the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The authors focus specifically on mass murders involving four or more fatalities (excluding the perpetrator) that occurred between 2001 and 2010 and conclude that the mass media presents a very different representation of mass murders than what official data sources provide (Huff-Corzine et al., 2014). Specifically, the media promotes the idea that mass murderers are usually young, white males when in actuality they are more likely to be black (Huff-Corzine et al., 2014). These findings actually align with known trends for the majority of criminal activity, which establish that racial and ethnic minorities comprise a disproportionately high percentage of offenders (Lankford, 2016). The authors ultimately conclude that, although the media provides important coverage on mass murders, often the information reported results in a distorted view of the crime.
As the recent shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando demonstrates, other compounding issues such as the fear of terrorist activity, Islamophobia, and conflicting views on gun control are unfortunately tied to the concept of race. Ultimately, the media needs to take more responsibility for accurate reporting and must strive to objectively report facts supported by official data sources. This may be a difficult feat to undertake considering the vast range of media outlets, and there is no guarantee that viewers will respond to these changes in a positive manner or modify their existing biases as a result, but without an attempt at such changes, the current reporting trends will only continue to aggravate tensions and promote division.
A Closer Look at Mass Shooters
Because White mass shooters tend to attract more news media coverage than do non-White shooters, it creates a misperception about mass shooter demographics, a subject I previously wrote about.
An analysis of recent mass shootings bears this out. Of the 46 mass shooters in the Gun Violence Archive database for March 2021, 2% (1) was committed by a White male; 8% (4) were committed by Hispanics; 45% (21) were committed by African Americans; and in 43%, or 20 cases, the attacker’s race is unknown.
In January 2019 I conducted an identical analysis, finding total of 25 American mass shootings. Of the 25 mass shootings in the Gun Violence Archive database, 16% (4) of them were committed by white males; 4% (1) was committed by a Hispanic man; 64% (16) were committed by African Americans; and in 16%, or 4 cases, the attacker’s race is unknown.
A year later in January 2020 I conducted an identical analysis, finding total of 25 American mass shootings. Of the 25 mass shootings in the Gun Violence Archive database for January 2020, 4% (1) of them was committed by a white male; 4% (1) was committed by a Hispanic man; 68% (17) were committed by African Americans; and in 24%, or 6 cases, the attacker’s race is unknown. All the data are publicly available for anyone who would like to review the source material or examine other months.
It’s clear from even a cursory glance at the Gun Violence Archive demographic data that White shooters are, if anything, under-represented in mass shootings. Obviously it varies by month, but in the three months sampled above, the percentage of mass shooters that were White ranged from 2% to 16% with an average of 7.3%—despite comprising about 60% of the American population.
The name and race of the shooter has not been released, and it’s just as well because it doesn’t matter. Knowing her demographics is unhelpful; we already know that females are much less likely than males to engage in gun violence. Most of the social media memes and comments singling out this race or that race as representing mass shooters is not only factually wrong but misses the point. It’s false that most mass shooters are White men. But even if it was true, it wouldn’t matter.
https://www.newsweek.com/did-media-bury-mass-shooting-because-shooter-was-black-opinion-1638249
What happens when two of the things you argue against the most happen in a way that makes it difficult to decry one without seemingly perpetuating the other? This is what happened last week, when identity journalism and gun control collided in the news coverage—or rather, lack thereof—of a school shooting in Arlington, Texas.
Last Wednesday, news broke in the morning of a school shooting. A teenage boy fired several shots inside Timberview High School, injuring four people and fleeing the scene. You might have expected the news coverage to follow a familiar pattern after a school mass shooting, starting with the non-stop coverage of the events as they unfold, the ubiquitous cries that "thoughts and prayers are not enough," followed by a demand by every anti-gun politician who can get him or herself on the airwaves for more stringent gun control. Finally, the president himself would be asked to comment.
But this shooting did not follow the script. Fox News carried the coverage live, but by and large, the other 24-hour news channels did not, despite the active shooter being on the run and a manhunt underway for his capture.
Of course, I can't know for sure why the news channels abdicated their usual hysterical, wall-to-wall coverage of mass shootings in this instance. But I can tell you what my immediate suspicion was at the absence of coverage: The shooter is going to turn out to be black.
And indeed, when they apprehended him, the shooter was black.
Charles Love does a decent job of explaining this Media skew:
I suspected this would be the case because it seems to me the only thing that the liberal media is more attached to than its opposition to guns is its support of woke identity politics. And this was simply the only thing that could have trumped the mass shooting narrative.
For a group constantly focused on race and identity, the liberal media is quick to downplay it when it doesn't support their cause. Thus, because black men are over-criminalized and portrayed as violent, the liberal media has invested a lot of energy trying to overcorrect on this front, turning a blind eye to rising crime and skyrocketing murder. Never mind that the victims of these crimes are black, too.
And this is how a mass shooting in a Texas school and the ensuing manhunt came to be erased: It was coded as black on black crime, which meant that the media couldn't report on it, lest they contribute to something they abhor. Rather than report the news honestly, they ignored it.
Even what counts as a mass shooting is all too often politicized in this manner. The Congressional Research Service and the FBI define a mass shooting as a shooting incident with four or more homicides. But there are no set parameters around this and its loose definition leads to shootings being counted, or not, based solely on the media's decision. And that decision is often predicated on race or the socioeconomic class of the neighborhood.
That's how you end up with a situation where when a dozen people are shot and two killed in the majority black Park Manor neighborhood and it's not called a mass shooting—but when four are wounded and one killed in more affluent Wicker Park, it is deemed a mass shooting.
It is not disputable that the coverage varies vastly. Yes, it keys in on unusual aspects. Like the VA Tech shooter, the Trans shooter etc.
The coverage is for sure used for sensationalism when it can be. But as many of these studies point out the coverage is obviously skewed and tend to promote an agenda. If this was not the case, it would not even be thought of or questioned.
The whole issue of the aspect of the AR-15 or 'assault-style' rifle being used is another issue. The Left want those banned and usually cannot even define what an assault-rifle is.
This is, quite obviously, a Leftist-Media agenda that is driven more and more every day. They blow this put of proportion AND KEEP these shootings in the news longer, and make sure to report them all -- because this is how they keep this in the forefront of the folk's minds. This is how the politicians stir up their voters. This is how they can claim to run on crime-prevention, when it is NOT crime-prevention at all. They do nothing about everyday crime, that has been increasing steadily.
There are other dismaying things about this reporting as well. For example, when it is Asian it gets covered more extensively. Why? It is unusual and is more sensational. They also cover the white guys more 'sympathetically' than the black or hispanic guys when positing a mental issue.
It is all about what they want to MAKE the folks talk about and HOW they want the issue perceived and to PROMOTE their Leftist agenda.
But for sure the perception is that the typical mass-shooter is a white guy with an AR-15 and they are doing it out of proportion of normal crimes and out of proportion by race -- neither of which is true.
The length of typical coverage is another issue.
@StumpTownStu
I do not know how much reading you do or if you have time to read much. But if you do this is something that has a lot of very interesting aspects to it and is very interesting no matter what angle you look at it from -- crime, media, psychology, mental-illness, demographics, FBI profiling, or government funding help, etc.
I have done lots of stuff on this in the past and I am sure the numbers are still somewhat reflective in today's numbers.
But I still think the guy I quoted had valid points and I think these articles give him some credence.
Yes, I remember these and they were covered? I am not sure Wilson was classified as a mass-shooting because 'only' 3 died I think. But maybe so, because more were injured -- 5,6,7? I do not recall Eaton using an AR-15? maybe he did.
But I am not sure what you mean about them not making the news? Maybe I misunderstood your point here? Maybe they weren't covered as much as a school-mass shooting -- is that what you mean?
Or maybe just because I knew of them, maybe most people did not. But they were for sure covered by many, many outlets at the time.
Seems like a reach on the race aspect. Likely that this school shooting did not garner widespread media coverage because there were no fatalities and simply a few injuries.
Shootings that do not involve death, often do not make the news, regardless of setting. Likely had nothing to do with shooter being black. Good effort though. 
I'm talking about your post not his. You seemed to imply a specific school shooting was not covered in the media because the shooter was black, which didn't align with the media's agenda. I am calling BS and pointing out it was not covered because none of the school kids or teachers in the school were killed. 
No sir. That was the journalist. I mainly pointed it out to make the point that even black journalists and pundits see this. It is not just us everyday folk.
Also, I do not think he was saying it was NOT covered. Just the WAY it was covered (or not covered) is what he had issue with.
Of course his point is valid to ask, but there are underlying issues in each case on an individual basis (such as age and verification and lone wolf, etc.). Maybe some of these applied to this reporting, I am not sure. I was just pointing it out because it was an example of the way folks see the reporting.
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