School Shootings: Mediatized Violence in a Global Age

by Glenn W. Muschert (Editor), Johanna Sumiala (Editor)

Overview

School shootings have raised considerable interest among scholars as a global (media) cultural phenomenon and have increased specifically in the 1990s developing into a seeming cultural epidemic. This book contributes to the current academic discussion on school shootings by analysing this phenomenon in a broader context of mediatization in contemporary social and cultural life. Mediatized logic has the power to influence us as individuals communicating about the shootings and experiencing the shootings as victimizers, victims, witnesses or bystanders. In three sections, this book explores shootings from different, yet interconnected, perspectives: (1) a theoretical focus on media and school shootings within various sociological and cultural dimensions, specifically how contemporary media transform school shootings into mediatized violence; (2) a focus on the practices of mediatization, with emphasis on mediated coverage of school shootings and its political, cultural, social and ethical implications; and (3) an examination of the audiences, victims and witnesses of school shootings as well as organizations which try to manage these public crimes of significant media interest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785608179
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:	12/07/2015
Series:	Studies in Media and Communications , #7
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: School Shootings as Mediatized Violence Glenn W. Muschert and Johanna Sumiala 
Section 1: Framing the Event: Societal and (Media) Cultural Perspectives School Shootings and Cultivation Analysis: On Confrontational Media Rhetoric and the History of Research on The Politics of Media Violence, Andy Ruddock 
Media Dynamics in School Shootings: A Socialization Theory Perspective, Nils Bockler, Thorsten Seeger, and Peter Sitzer 
A Futile Game: On the Prevalence and Possible Causes of the Misguided Speculation about the Role of Violent Video Games as a Substantial Independent Causal Factor in Mass School Shootings, Christopher Ferguson and James Ivory 
Media Consumption in German School Shooters, Rebecca Bondu and Herbert Scheithauer 
Making Headlines: A Quarter Century of the Media's Characterization of Canadian School Shootings, Stephanie Howells 
Section 2: Covering the Events: Perspectives of and for Journalistic Practice, Amok Visuals. 
Analyzing Visual Media Coverage of Amok School Shootings: A Novel Iconographic Approach, Marion G. Muller, Ognyan Seizov, and Florian Wiencek 
U.S. and Finnish Journalists: A Comparative Study of Role, Responsibilities, and Emotional Reactions to School Shootings, Klas Backholm, Marguerite Moritz, and Kaj Bjorkqvist 
Vital Explanations or Harmful Gossip? Finnish Journalists' Reflections on Reporting the Interpretations of Two School Shootings Jari Valiverronen, Kari Koljonen, and Pentti Raittila 
Deciphering Rampage: Assigning Blame to Youth Offenders in News Coverage of School Shootings, Glenn W. Muschert and Leah Janssen 
Section 3: Witnessing and Consuming School Shooting Events Media Participation of School Shooters and Their Fans: Navigating Between Self-Distinction and Imitation to Achieve Individuation, Nathalie Paton 
The Remote Is Controlled by the Monster: Issues of Mediatized Violence and School Shootings, Jacklyn Schildkraut 
The Mediatized Victim: School Shootings as Distant Suffering, Salli Hakala 
Collective Coping through Networked Narratives: YouTube Responses to the Virginia Tech Shooting, Simon Lindgren 
School Shootings, Crises of Masculinities, and Media Spectacle: Some Critical Perspectives, Douglas Kellner 
Concluding Reflections Afterword: Mediatization and School Shootings: Is Mediatization a Useful Concept for Informing Practice in Journalism? Gavin Rees 
Afterword: Media and School Shootings: A Sociological View, Ralph Larkin

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, the 14 chapters of this volume highlight the importance of media for framing the school-related violence issues and provide the readers with a comprehensive analysis of the mediatization of violence, and in particular to the media coverage of school shootings in the context of globalization. This volume is useful for students, scholars, teachers and anyone interested in understanding mediatized violence as a global phenomenon. The book fills a gap in violence studies by providing a new critical analysis of school shootings from different perspectives: theoretical perspective, media perspective and audiences' perspective." Biana Mitu, Assistant Lecturer, University of Bucharest. Reviewed in the International Journal of Communication and Heath, Vol. 2, 2013.