Neveragain

Framing in Community and National News Coverage of the Parkland Mass Shootings

Bibliographic Data

ID12909658
AuthorsKyle J Holody (0000-0002-8008-3752, Conway School of Landscape Design, corresponding author), Brittany Shaughnessy (0000-0002-1070-7785, Virginia Tech)
Year2020
Volume16
Issue4
Pages637-659
Publication date2020-09-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512786.2020.1816857
OpenAlexW3085974203
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited77

This study examined the salience and valence of frames in community and national newspaper coverage of the 2018 Parkland shootings, after which several survivors became well-known activists. Of the most common frames found in previous coverage of mass shootings (gun control, popular culture, school safety), only gun control was prominent following the shootings in Parkland. Newer frames (partisan divide, activism, mental health) instead followed gun control in popularity, likely because these were utilized by the activist Parkland survivors themselves. With a few important exceptions (e.g., community newspapers used community change, law responsibility, and family responsibility more; national used gun control, activism, and partisan divide more), local and community newspapers were similar in their use of frames. Perhaps most importantly, the findings indicate the survivors’ activism seemed to disrupt the “settling” of news coverage into well-established frames for mass shootings. This suggests the ongoing conversation about mass shootings remains complicated and more dependent on shootings’ specific circumstances than may have been previously assumed

Criminology · Framing (construction · Gun control · Mass media · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Popularity · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · History · Law · Psychology

Tools

Open DOI