Patterns of Bias

How Mainstream Media Operationalize Links between Mass Shootings and Terrorism

Bibliographic Data

ID6335697
AuthorsSarah K Dreier (0000-0001-7075-691X, Political Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, corresponding author), Emily Kalah Gade (0000-0002-9061-7869, Emory University), Dallas Card (0000-0001-5573-8836, University of Michigan), Noah A Smith (0000-0002-2310-6380, University of Washington)
Year2022
Volume39
Issue6
Pages755-778
Publication date2022-11-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1058-4609 • E-ISSN: 1091-7675
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10584609.2022.2111484
OpenAlexW4296588640
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited86

How do race and/or religion shape news media coverage of mass shooters and whether media associate mass shooters with terrorism? This article combines natural language processing (NLP), statistical analysis of U.S. mass shooting events (1990–2016) and an in-depth case-study comparison to evaluate whether media exhibit patterns in how they frame mass shooters from different racial and/or religious groups. First, we use NLP to target and model the specific adjectives media use to describe mass shooters. We find identifiable text patterns in the adjectives media apply to mass shooters that vary along racial/religious lines. Second, we statistically estimate disagreement between established definitions of terrorism and media associations with the term "terrorism" (excluding negations). This analysis suggests that media disproportionately fail to link non-Muslim white perpetrators to events that should properly be considered terrorism. Our in-depth case-study comparison reinforces and contextualizes these results. This research provides scientific evidence to support the increasingly prominent public speculation that U.S. institutions insufficiently acknowledge the threat of white-perpetrated terrorism. We suggest that biased media coverage reflects and contributes to a process by which certain identity groups are framed as outsiders

Criminology · Epistemology · Framing (construction · Mainstream · Mass media · Negation · Operationalization · Political science · Sociology · Terrorism · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Computer Science · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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