Another Mass Shooting

I've seen countless television interviews after mass shootings in suburbia and small-town America. The people interviewed, as well as the interviews, always seem to say the same thing: "This isn't supposed to happen here." They are saying this because they cherish what had been their high expectation of safety, even in a world where danger exists.

No one says that about the South Side of Chicago, or the streets of Philly. And too many of us have become comfortable with the tacit understanding that it is supposed to happen there, if only because it does so often.

My question to Americans is, should there be any place in America where shootings are supposed to happen? Have we so lowered our expectations for the lives of Black people that we have normalized Black death when it results from intra-racial conflict?

You see this all too often, like the mass shooting at a Texas school that was barely covered because it was at a Black school, or the shooting in Sacramento that got momentary attention—until the media and political class realized it was gang related, and the narrative quickly shifted from the event being the "abnormal" type of mass shooting to the "acceptable" gang-related violent conflict between Black men.

How is this acceptable?

I believe Americans have been lulled into feeling indifferent when it comes to violence in poorer Black neighborhoods because there doesn't appear to be a tangible solution or progress. After decades of little to no change in certain neighborhoods across the country, we've accepted their status as being permanently stagnant in subpar outcomes.

With this acceptance, we've simply bought into seeing some American life as being more expendable than others depending on their jurisdiction, class, and circumstance. And yes—their race.

Six innocent people shot dead in a nightclub shooting in a majority-Black neighborhood should be equally as troubling as six innocent people shot dead in a suburban mall.

The violent death of innocent Americans shouldn't be a political issue but a human issue.

We should not normalize the detrimental outcomes of some by giving in to our habit of being pessimistic about change in particular jurisdictions in our country.
We should also not allow ourselves to view the death of young and innocent bystanders as we do when watching news stories of a catastrophic event halfway across the world: Not my problem.

It is our problem. And ignoring it won't make it go away or get any better. I refuse to see any American as collateral damage to our societal pessimism, and neither should you.

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

Due to their sensational nature, mass shootings receive a considerable amount of attention in the media. Despite their rarity, not all shootings garner the same coverage. The present study examines characteristics of newsworthiness among 90 shootings

Using a media distortion analysis of articles in The New York Times, specific consideration is given to how offender characteristics, victim counts, and locations of the events impact the newsworthiness of each case. The findings indicate that race/ethnicity and victim counts are the most salient predictor of whether or not a shooting was covered, with perpetrators of Asian and other descent and those events with higher victim counts generating more prominent coverage (measured as higher article and word counts), whereas incidents occurring in locations other than schools yielded less coverage. Implications from the findings, both for the general public and media practices, as well as study limitations, also are considered.

In order to understand these disparities, researchers have employed a technique known as a ‘media distortion analysis’ 

This allows researchers to assess why some cases are covered over others and what factors increase the prominence of the coverage

have analyzed media representations of school and mass shootings, they often explore only a single event and focus on how the stories are framed rather than why the cases are (or are not) covered. Given the impact of such events, understanding the factors that influence the amount of coverage is critical.

Like acts of terrorism and mass murder, not all mass shootings receive equitable media coverage, despite the sensational nature of the phenomenon as a whole

Further, as public mass shootings have become their own distinct phenomenon, separating from both general homicide as well as mass murder, an examination is warranted into the coverage patterns as they relate to these particular events. Accordingly, the present study seeks to fill this gap by examining news stories of mass shootings to understand selection and prominence – that is, why certain events are featured over others and how much attention each receives – within the coverage. 

One of the most salient predictors of coverage of a homicide is whether or not it involved a ‘worthy victim’

Specifically, this refers to those who are ‘White, in the youngest and oldest age groups, women, of high socioeconomic status, killed by strangers’

or who are perceived as more vulnerable

The presence of one or more of these attributes has been found to increase the likelihood that a homicide receives any media attention, as well as the prominence of the coverage in the form of more articles and increased word counts

It is important to note, however, that the groups who are considered to be worthy victims often are overrepresented in the media in relation to their actual prevalence in the patterns of homicide

Mass shootings in the media

As noted, homicide is exceedingly rare, accounting for just 1.2% of violent crimes and 0.1% of all offenses known to law enforcement.

Even rarer are incidents of mass shootings, though due to definitional issues, the exact number of events annually is unknown

Still, when word breaks that a shooting has occurred, the media often begin a continuous cycle of streaming coverage that lasts for hours or days, and in the most extreme cases, even weeks. Understanding this coverage is critical given its ability to shape public opinion and related policies, such as gun control and mental health

The strongest predictors of coverage related to the victims were higher death tolls and greater numbers of injured victims; both yielded more media attention

Similarly, the use of a firearm, particularly an assault weapon, also increased the likelihood that a killing would be covered

Further, greater coverage levels were found among those mass murders that occurred in public settings, and workplaces in particular

the prominence of coverage also increased as the age of the offender increased

Collectively, these findings are useful in guiding the present study’s consideration of the variation among coverage of mass shooting events.

The present study

The present study sought to expand the growing body of literature on media distortion analyses by examining the coverage of a specific phenomenon – mass shootings – in The New York Times. Specifically, this exploratory study was guided by two key research questions. First, what attributes of a mass shooting are the best predictors of coverage of the event? Second, what characteristics lead to increased coverage among mass shooting events?

previous examination of factors influencing the newsworthiness of mass murder more broadly, it was hypothesized that

(H1) More serious events, in respect to the number of fatalities and injured victims, will be more newsworthy.

(H2) Shootings involving female perpetrators will be more newsworthy.

(H3) Shootings involving non-white perpetrators will be more newsworthy.

(H4) Shootings involving perpetrators who survive their attacks will be more newsworthy.

(H5) Shootings occurring outside of schools will be more newsworthy.

In addition to drawing on previous research, these hypotheses suggest that those characteristics of mass shootings that are ‘atypical’ in nature (within the context of the phenomenon) are expected to lead to a greater likelihood of the case receiving media attention and an increase in the amount of prominent coverage in the form of more articles and longer stories.

Attributes of the shooters and the events more generally were used as independent variables, the coding of which is presented in Table 1. With regard to the shooters, dummy codes were created for each independent variable with the exception of age, which was measured continuously. Shooters ranged from 14 years old to 88 years old, with a mean age of approximately 35 years. For the remaining variables, 1 represented the presence of the characteristic, and its absence was coded as 0. Specifically, females were coded as 1, with males (accounting for over 94% of offenders) serving as the reference category. Four individual dummy variables – black, Hispanic, Asian, and other (including shooters who were Middle Eastern, Indian, Native American, or biracial) – were created to measure race and ethnicity, with whites, who comprise nearly 58% of all shooters, serving as the reference category. A final measure assessed whether the shooter died in the event, regardless of the circumstance (e.g., suicide, killed by law enforcement, or killed by a civilian). Individuals who died in the shooting (56%) were coded as 1, with those who survived (44%) serving as the reference category.

Measures related to the event itself focused on two key areas – the location and the victims.

Measures related to the event itself focused on two key areas – the location and the victims.

Three individual dummy variables – Northeast, West, and Midwest – were created to assess potential regional effects of the shooting. The South served as the reference category, as previous research

Further, a variable was created for the year that the shooting occurred in order to control for time. Measures also were constructed to determine whether the type of location where the shooting occurred influenced the likelihood or amount of coverage. Specifically, dummy variables were created for workplaces, restaurants (including bars and nightclubs), malls, personal residences, and other (including places of worship), with schools (the most common with 29% of events) serving as the reference category.

Further, a variable was created for the year that the shooting occurred in order to control for time. Measures also were constructed to determine whether the type of location where the shooting occurred influenced the likelihood or amount of coverage. Specifically, dummy variables were created for workplaces, restaurants (including bars and nightclubs), malls, personal residences, and other (including places of worship), with schools (the most common with 29% of events) serving as the reference category.

News coverage

Once the articles were downloaded and organized by case, they then were reviewed and culled to be consistent with these previous studies’ parameters, meaning that letters to the editors, opinion pieces, blogs, and sports articles (e.g., containing the word ‘shooting’) were removed. Thus, only news stories and editorials were analyzed, though these articles may have focused specifically on reviewing the shooting or the aftermath (e.g., policy discussions) resulting from the attack. Attributes of the news stories, including the word count per story and number of articles per event, also were recorded and served as dependent measures in the analysis.

Analysis and findings

The findings of the current study are presented in three sections. The initial analysis explores the patterns of coverage of mass shootings occurring within the study period. Next, the results of the logistic regression analysis are presented to examine which variables influenced the likelihood that a shooting was covered at all. Finally, robust regression was utilized to determine which predictors influenced the amount of coverage a particular shooting received.

Prevalence of news coverage about mass shootings

Of the 90 shootings included in the present study, nearly 77% (n = 69) received at least one article in print. Compared with previous media distortion analyses of homicide, this rate is higher, albeit marginally.

When examining studies with only a single year of cases, analyses of larger cities – including Chicago, Miami, and Baltimore – yielded lower coverage rates – 26, 60, and 70%, respectively 

Conversely, homicides in smaller cities often yielded higher rates of coverage, such as in Indianapolis (92%) and Milwaukee (100%), presumably due to the lower probability of such events occurring in these locations, thereby increasing their newsworthiness

Further illustrating this point, Table 2 presents the coverage patterns of the 10 most salient cases (those receiving more than 10 articles). In total, these 10 shootings account for 70% of the total number of articles printed, as well as 75% of the number of words written. Perhaps even more noteworthy is that it is actually the top five cases that are driving the coverage levels. 

It is important to consider why 21 shootings received no coverage. While initial speculation may suggest that this is due to lower victim or fatality counts, examination of the individual cases refutes such an idea. Two shootings had total victim counts over 10; this tally increased to 10 when considering cases with 5 or more total victims. When examining just the fatalities, 19% had between four and eight victims, while 19% of the shootings had no registered deaths, though they still had at least two injured. 

Examining the temporal proximity to other shootings further fails to explain why some events received no coverage. Specifically, only three shootings occurred within 30 days of a highly prominent shooting.

Mixed support is found for the hypothesis that shootings occurring outside of schools also would yield greater coverage. While the majority of locations of incidents in the study may be considered ‘public’ when compared to private residences, there is variability in the ease of which one may access a specific site. Schools and workplaces, for example, tend to be more secure or restricted as compared to malls and restaurants. This disparity is reflected in the findings of Table 3. While schools yield the greatest average number of articles and words, shootings occurring at malls yield a higher proportion of events that are covered. Also partially consistent with Duwe’s (

Citation

2000) findings, workplace shootings had a greater coverage percentage, as compared to those attacks in schools, but yielded only about one-third of the number of articles and words.

When examining the hypotheses related to characteristics of the perpetrator (sex and race/ethnicity) as they are correlated to the newspaper coverage, mixed support is again found. Specifically, despite that a greater proportion of incidents involving white shooters receive media attention, the amount received in respect to the number of articles and word counts is greater among perpetrators who are Asian or of other descent. Similarly, the death of the shooter also yields a greater proportion of events being highlighted by the media, though cases in which the offender lives garner slightly more stories and increased length. Finally, the hypothesis that female shooters will yield more coverage is not supported, as depicted in Table 3. Not only are fewer incidents covered, but these cases receive approximately 40% as many articles and 50% as many words compared to male shooters, despite their infrequency of occurrence.

Factors predicting newspaper coverage

With regard to median income, both models indicate that shootings occurring in more affluent communities result in a great number of articles (b = .000, p < .01, and b = .000, p < .05, respectively). 

With regard to median income, both models indicate that shootings occurring in more affluent communities result in a great number of articles (b = .000, p < .01, and b = .000, p < .05, respectively). 

Jason Silva, a professor of criminal justice at William Paterson University who studies media coverage of mass shootings, has noted a distinction between “mass public shootings” — the incidents that have come to define mass shootings in the American consciousness, where the shooter targets a specific public space for a rampage — and mass shootings that grow out of violence between individuals or groups, but wind up claiming bystanders among those shot. “The mass public shootings are what get more coverage, traditionally,” he said, irrespective of the race of perpetrators or victims. 

Silva has advocated cautiously for increasing media coverage of conflict-related mass shootings as a means of generating public support for necessary legislative changes. “If we want to address the gun violence problem at large” — which overwhelmingly comprises conflict related shootings like the one at the Galleria — “then we should 100 percent be showing them the same media attention,” he said. “But we should keep in mind the harm caused during the tough-on-crime era of the ‘80s and ‘90s, which was driven in part by exhaustive media coverage.”

“Mass shootings in Black and Brown communities may be new to you all — not new to us,” said DeVone Boggan, the executive director of the Bay Area-based violence prevention group Advance Peace. “And it’s never been considered a mass shooting. Not until white folks started dying did we start hearing about this phenomena called mass shootings. But drive-by shootings — i.e., ‘mass shootings’ — have been happening forever, COVID or not.”

To Boggan and his fellow violence interrupters, it’s important to call out what underlies the formula for which mass shootings generate public attention and which are overlooked. “It’s part of systemic racism,” said Fernando Rejón, executive director of Urban Peace Institute, an initiative in Los Angeles that provides training for violence intervention workers. “The automatic assumption is, ‘it’s probably gang-related,’ ‘they’re all involved in something illegal.’ If it happened at a bar or a nightclub, where it’s not ‘supposed’ to happen, then it makes national news. 

“Systemic racism,” Rejón added, “is really about power: the power to determine who’s valued and who is not.”

“Then you have a situation like what you’re describing here in Syracuse where nine people are shot and one child was murdered on the night of his graduation, and you see a couple of media news clips about it. Nobody marched. There was no public outrage.” 

The takeaway, she said, was clear: “Nobody cares about us.”

Why aren't black mass shooters getting any attention?

Arbery's killing is all over the news the last days. And everyone is telling how bad white people are because of that killing. But I haven't heard anything about Kori Ali Muhammad, who killed 4 white men in Fresno. Or the shooting in the Milwaukee brewery, where 6 people were killed and the perpetrator was a black male. Or when a white jogger was killed by a black man in 2017. And much more. Why are these shootings not getting any attention? The reason is obvious: because the perpetrators aren't white.

@StumpTownStu

“You know you're wrong. Your pride won't allow you to admit it.”

“I'm sorry you're dense enough to attribute this to the race of the victims and/or perpetrators, and/or the style of weapons used.”

I do not like to use folk’s words against them; but in this case maybe an exception is warranted. 

After all of this data and evidence from many folks of various backgrounds questioning the Media’s coverage of mass shootings and their portrayal of AR-15s, I am not sure what to tell you.

Maybe your ‘pride’ will not let you admit you are wrong or you are too ‘dense’ to get it.

But until you post refuting data I am just going to have to be willing to take the expert’s studies and data and the folks that have studied the issues word for it.  Especially since I have written and talked on this so much before and have done my own research.

Too many people on BOTH sides of the political spectrum, white and black, feel this way.  There has to be a reason.

If you feel it is NOT the Media coverage you have to show what else it is OR why it is just all of these people's perceptions and not yours.

I have given as much as I can to support the guy's points.  

I will let this go for now unless you have some pertinent data to provide.  

At least 3 people killed and 5 people wounded in shooting at motorcycle rally in Red River, New Mexico, mayor says

53 shot, 12 killed in Chicago over the weekend

So nobody wants to comment on the mass shooting in Phil huh? Doesn't fit your agenda of a white guy?  Is that why? 

@BigGame90

Yeah, have to agree.. the guy wasn't the right " color " for the media to care.

Meanwhile, Chicago is a cesspool that MUGG eluded to, and the hoodrats here in Ca that are involved in  "smash and grab" .... are virtually all this same " color".

No way can the media portray black people in a negative light.  That would be "mean. "  

And how "racist " is it for our media to ignore these shootings that take place in our inner- cities, particularly Philly and Chicago.  

By omission,  they are basically saying this is to be expected by the black community.   How racist is that ? 

That shit in Philly was all over the news. I barely watch the news and I saw a ton of coverage.

@baish2012

 You that stupid????   

And also, since when have "smash and grabs" been national news. Is that even a news worthy story? It was a thing in SF for a while but it has died down. Is it a big thing in your neck of the woods? Big enough to warrant national coverage?

Open borders, dems not locking up criminals and releasing.....You idiots blame guns......You're pathetic brainwashed idiots who voted Biden and you blame guns, lol.........Your problem here is you idiots trust media and your government!!!!    Guns are far from the problem but you're brainwashed and have no idea.....Lol, you really think criminals will give their guns up, you're pussies!!!!   KNOCK!

@Raiders22

 Quit voting dems idiot!!!!!   KNOCK!

@knockonwood

  They do not vote with logic; they vote with emotions.

Knock you gotta do a better job at communicating brother , my goodness , it’s like you’re huffing paint or smoking Salvia then posting ……with all this Guns of the Navarone testicle juice that you just can’t stop exploding across our innocent and “ used to be clean “ screens .

We get it .

You’re a testosterone making machine with testicles tantamount to two nuclear bombs and we are but meager house cats purring and licking at our paws but all this dramatic showmanship for me , is just you , doing your best impersonation of Little Richard minus the eyeliner but with double the lipstick . Ya dig ?

calm it the fuck down immediately  spock !

The over came in..