Perpetuating Perpetrators: News Coverage of Perpetrators and Victims of the Columbine and Parkland Shootings

ABSTRACT

Since the Columbine school shootings more than two decades ago, advocates have called for mass shooting coverage at local and national levels to reduce focus on perpetrators and instead increase focus on victims. Given these recommendations, the present study explored the degree to which recent local and national news coverage of the Parkland school shooting is consistent with suggested best practice compared to the precedent-setting Columbine coverage. Newspaper coverage following both shootings was examined, resulting in an analysis of 641 national and local print news articles. Results indicate local Parkland coverage exhibited a greater percentage of articles that referenced the perpetrator by name compared to local Columbine coverage, and references were in more prominent locations, such as the article title and lead paragraph. No other statistical differences were found in perpetrator and victim references between Columbine and Parkland coverage. Findings suggest that despite continued calls to give less focus to perpetrators of mass shootings in local and national news, perpetrators still perpetuate in coverage. Results highlight the need to identify barriers to implementing recommendations for responsible reporting of mass shooting events.

KEYWORDS:

• Copycat effects
• gun violence
• mass shootings
• media coverage
• perpetrators
• school shootings
• trauma
• victims

Acknowledgments

We thank Julia Richardson and Amanda Gentz for their help in coding for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. This project was funded by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) [award number 2017-MU-GX-K144] to the Medical University of South Carolina. Opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, or the Office for Victims of Crime.