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Abstract

In recent years, major media organizations have wondered if their coverage of mass shooters actually increases the risk of future attacks, and have asked how their reporting could be improved. In response, 149 experts have called for media to stop publishing the names and photos of mass killers (except during ongoing searches for escaped suspects), but continue reporting the other details of these crimes as needed. Here, we review some of the most important scientific findings on (a) the nature of media coverage of mass killers, (b) its consequences, and (c) solutions that could help make this coverage safer, and summarize how new studies published in this special issue of American Behavioral Scientist add to this valuable knowledge base.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218763476
American Behavioral Scientist
2018, Vol. 62(2) 151 –162
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DOI: 10.1177/0002764218763476
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Article
Media Coverage of
Mass Killers: Content,
Consequences, and Solutions
Adam Lankford1 and Eric Madfis2
Abstract
In recent years, major media organizations have wondered if their coverage of mass
shooters actually increases the risk of future attacks, and have asked how their
reporting could be improved. In response, 149 experts have called for media to stop
publishing the names and photos of mass killers (except during ongoing searches
for escaped suspects), but continue reporting the other details of these crimes as
needed. Here, we review some of the most important scientific findings on (a) the
nature of media coverage of mass killers, (b) its consequences, and (c) solutions that
could help make this coverage safer, and summarize how new studies published in
this special issue of American Behavioral Scientist add to this valuable knowledge base.
Keywords
mass shootings, mass killings, media coverage, contagion, copycat effects
Introduction
In recent years, The New York Times has asked “How Should the News Media Cover
Mass Shooters?” The Washington Post has lamented “Another Massacre, Another
Media Quandary,” and Los Angeles Times has asked “Are the Media Complicit in
Mass Shootings?” Many experts have provided an answer. In an open letter signed by
149 scholars, professors, and law enforcement professionals who study mass shooters
and other perpetrators of crime, they call for the media to stop publishing the names
1The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
2The University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, USA
Corresponding Author:
Adam Lankford, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, The University of Alabama, P.O. Box
870320, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0320, USA, and Eric Madfis, Social Work and Criminal Justice Program,
The University of Washington Tacoma, Campus Box #358425, 1900 Commerce Street, Tacoma, WA
98402, USA.
Email: adam.lankford@ua.edu; emadfis@uw.edu.
763476ABSXXX10.1177/0002764218763476American Behavioral ScientistLankford and Mads
research-article2018
152 American Behavioral Scientist 62(2)
and photos of mass killers (except during ongoing searches for escaped suspects), but
continue reporting the other details of these crimes as needed (“Dear Members of the
Media,” 2017).
Similar statements have been made by the FBI, the International Association of
Chiefs of Police, the International Police Association, the families of some victims,
and some media members themselves (Lankford & Madfis, 2018). As a 2017 report
from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit explained, “media coverage featuring the
offenders’ names, photos, and life stories only cements the legacies they seek to
achieve. . . . News media should refrain from naming the assailants, from posting their
photographs” (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2017). Among experts, the consensus
is that this would help prevent mass killings and save innocent lives.
Many members of the public also recognize these risks. In recent surveys, approxi-
mately 80% of respondents agreed that media coverage of mass shootings can make
offenders famous, and 70% agreed that this coverage can lead to copycat attacks
(Schildkraut & McHale, 2018). These views were commonly held among men and
women across different races and ethnicities and different political affiliations
(Schildkraut & McHale, 2018).
So why have most media organizations thus far refused to change? The majority of
journalists, reporters, editors, and news producers would not intentionally do some-
thing that would inspire future mass killers. Perhaps they are simply not aware of the
latest scientific evidence on this subject. For example, in our communications with
one veteran journalist, he asked “is there much actual research on this question out
there?” and suggested he was only familiar with “a couple of anecdotal examples of
mass killers who have said things like they want to be famous.”
These comments may be representative of what many media members have thought,
and thus provide a few important reminders. First, the media’s primary job is to inves-
tigate and report the news, not to conduct sociological studies on the effects of their
own coverage. They should not be expected to have that information unless we make
concerted efforts to share it with them. Second, people are often wary of overreacting
to recent events, but may feel more comfortable trusting scientific findings based on
larger bodies of research. In theory, this could create a challenge, because high-profile
mass shootings are relatively rare. More than 10 million people died from lung cancer
before it was widely accepted that cigarettes were the culprit (Proctor, 2012). If we
have to wait for 10 million mass shooting victims before changing how the media cov-
ers these incidents, it might take thousands of years.
Fortunately, media coverage of mass killers can be analyzed in a variety of valid
ways, including some that draw on well-established findings from large bodies of
research. Much is already known about (a) the nature of media coverage of mass
killers, (b) its consequences, and (c) solutions that could help make this coverage
safer. Below, we review some of the most important scientific findings and sum-
marize how new studies published in this special issue of American Behavioral
Scientist (identified with their authors’ names in bold print) add to this valuable
knowledge base.
Lankford and Madfis 153
The Nature of Media Coverage of Mass Killings
No one would be surprised that mass killers receive a lot of media attention, but it is
now possible to put these amounts in context. In the United States, the 1999 Columbine
school shooting was one the most highly media covered events of the entire decade
(Muschert, 2002). It received larger CNN audiences than both the 1992 and 1996 pres-
idential elections, the Rodney King verdict and LA riots, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait,
and the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa (Muschert, 2002). More recently,
data from mediaQuant—an independent company that collects information from more
than 100,000 English language news sources, including newspapers, television, and
online news—show that perpetrators of seven mass killings from 2013 to 2017
received approximately $75 million in free media mentions (Lankford, 2018). During
the months of their attacks, some mass killers received more coverage in dollar value
than some of the most famous American celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Brad
Pitt, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Jennifer Aniston (Lankford, 2018). In many cases,
winning a Super Bowl or Academy Award garnered less media attention than commit-
ting a high-profile mass killing (Lankford, 2018).
There is also a strong correlation between the number of victims harmed in these
attacks and the amount of media attention that perpetrators receive. For example,
Duwe (2004) found that mass murderers from 1976 to 1999 who killed and wounded
more victims were significantly more likely to be featured in The New York Times. And
from 2000 to 2012, mass shooters who received this newspaper coverage also got
more of it—in terms of number of articles and number of words—if they killed more
victims as well (Schildkraut, Elsass, & Meredith, 2017). In a study published in this
issue of American Behavioral Scientist, Dahmen (2018) found a similar connection
after analyzing photographic coverage of mass shootings across 3,821 newspaper
front pages. Incidents with more victims (at Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook) received
significantly more front page photos and stayed on the front pages significantly longer
than an incident with fewer victims (at Umpqua Community College).
Some statistics are also available on how the coverage that perpetrators receive
compares with that given to victims. For instance, Dahmen (2018) found that, overall,
newspaper front pages contained slightly more total photos of deceased victims than
of perpetrators. However, on a photos-per-individual basis, newspapers gave more
attention to perpetrators than deceased victims by a ratio of 16 to 1. In addition, front
page photos of perpetrators were much more likely to be large or medium sized than
photos of victims, which were small or mug shot sized 91% of the time. As she points
out, these findings raise serious questions, because the Society of Professional
Journalists’ Code of Ethics (2014) specifically emphasizes that the media should “bal-
ance the public’s need for information against potential harms” and “avoid pandering
to lurid curiosity.” What function does the publication of perpetrator photos serve,
other than pandering to lurid curiosity? There is no scientific or even anecdotal evi-
dence of any kind that suggests mass shooters can be identified in advance based on
their looks, so publishing photos of them would seem to have no preventative value.
154 American Behavioral Scientist 62(2)
In fact, audiences may not be quite as interested in mass shooters as media organi-
zations commonly assume. In their brilliant experiment published in this issue, Levin
and Wiest (2018) tested public responses to three almost identical news articles about
a mass murder at a school. For each article, the headline, opening sentences, and photo
were the same—the only difference was whether the article focused on a mass killer,
a hero, or a victim. Their findings revealed that respondents were significantly more
interested in reading news stories about heroes than they were about perpetrators. This
stands in stark contrast to the current news media environment wherein accounts pri-
marily focus on killers (Robinson, 2014). In retrospect, however, perhaps it makes
sense that people would be more attracted to news stories about heroes than villains,
as long as the hero is faced with a compelling challenge or conflict. Throughout his-
tory, movies, books, poems, and plays that focus on heroes have been the norm; those
that focus on villains have been the exception. In fact, many writers advise that for
successful literary works, the presence of a villain is completely optional (Ingermanson,
2011; Wood, 2015).
More broadly, the possibility that media coverage of mass killers actually exceeds
public demand is also consistent with other empirical findings, which show that from
2013 to 2017, many mass killers got more coverage from newspapers and broadcast/
cable news than the public interest these killers generated through online searches and
Twitter seemed to warrant (Lankford, 2018). When the media put mass killers on the
front pages of newspapers and on every television news channel, the public may not
look away—but that does not necessarily mean this is what they really want.
The Consequences of Media Coverage of Mass Killings
The likelihood that media coverage of mass killings would have dangerous conse-
quences is consistent with two huge areas of empirical research. The first is research
showing that one of the media’s primary functions is agenda setting. Although the
media may not control what the public think of a subject—whether they approve or
disapprove of it—the media directly influence what the public think about—and how
often (Cohen, 1963; Lippmann, 1922; McCombs & Shaw, 1972). The scientific basis
for agenda setting is extraordinarily strong, and McCombs and Shaw’s (1972) seminal
article on the subject has been cited nearly 10,000 times.
The second major area is empirical research showing that media coverage provides
free publicity that can have similar effects as paid advertising. This free publicity can
significantly increase the number of consumers who are interested in a product, per-
son, or experience (Bao & Chang, 2014; Ogilvy, 2015; Ridout & Smith, 2008; Stephen
& Galak, 2012). Notably, even negative coverage can have this effect (Ahluwalia,
Burnkrant, & Unnava, 2000; Berger, Sorensen, & Rasmussen, 2010; Ridout & Smith,
2008). As just one recent example, during the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald
Trump received approximately three times as much free publicity from the media as
Hillary Clinton (Schroeder, 2016). Even though a lot of that coverage was negative, it
seemed to have raised his status and appeal among a sizable portion of the population
(Oates & Moe, 2016; Stewart, 2016).
Lankford and Madfis 155
Taken together, these bodies of research point to a few clear conclusions. First,
media coverage of mass killings leads to more people thinking about mass killings—in
both intended and unintended ways. In fact, the postattack coverage is largely inescap-
able as people go about their daily lives—browsing the Internet, checking the news,
reading social media—so these moments of thinking about mass killings quickly add
up. Second, the free publicity that mass killers receive essentially functions as a
national and international advertising campaign (Lankford, 2018).
Although the coverage of perpetrators is negative in tone, it may still have many
unintended consequences, such as making mass killings—as potential opportunities to
become famous—and mass killers—as de facto celebrities—more appealing to a small
fraction of audience members. The role of contagion and copycat effects as conse-
quences of media coverage of mass killers has been heavily documented in the schol-
arly literature (Follman & Andrews, 2015; Gould & Olivares, 2017; Helfgott, 2015;
Kissner, 2016; Langman, 2017; Lankford, 2016; Lankford & Madfis, 2018; Meindl &
Ivy, 2017; Murray, 2017; Perrin, 2016; Sidhu, 2017; Towers, Gomez-Lievano, Khan,
Mubayi, & Castillo-Chavez, 2015). Of course, psychologically healthy people do not
commit mass shootings based on what they read or see in the news, but there are
troubled and at-risk individuals who respond very differently (Follman & Andrews,
2015; Gould & Olivares, 2017; Helfgott, 2015; Langman, 2017; Lankford, 2016,
2018; Murray, 2017; Perrin, 2016; Sidhu, 2017). This makes sense: Even dangerous or
distasteful products, people, and experiences almost always garner more interest if
they are widely advertised than not advertised at all.
For this issue, Raitanen and Oksanen (2018) studied one of these consequences:
the rise of global online communities of people who express a deep interest in school
shooters. Some of these individuals appear nonviolent, while others pose a clear threat,
such as the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooter, who participated in these
types of online communities for 3 years before committing his own attack. Much like
media coverage of movie stars and professional athletes creates fans of those celebrity
types, media coverage of mass killers creates fans and followers as well. Raitanen and
Oksanen (2018) found that these people are fascinated by previous attackers for a
variety of reasons, including sexual attraction, deep sympathy, intense curiosity, or the
desire to commit their own copycat attacks. Their obsessions are largely fed by media
coverage of past perpetrators, which provides the names, photos, and life stories that
they craft into objects for future worship and share online. It is important to emphasize
that these communities are fascinated by the individual people who commit mass kill-
ings, not just their actions. If media continued to report on the behavior of mass killers,
without publicizing their names and photos, it would largely deny these communities
the celebrity figures they are built around (Lankford & Madfis, 2018).
Langman’s (2018) study on copycat offenders for this issue provides a similar les-
son. The primary problem is not that media publish details about mass shooting
attacks, because most copycats are not copying attack tactics, anyway. The problem is
that media unintentionally make mass killers into celebrity role models, who are then
worshipped as gods, heroes, kindred spirits, and even sex symbols by the people who
eventually commit mass killings of their own. This is not mere speculation: Langman
156 American Behavioral Scientist 62(2)
(2018) documents these effects in great detail by citing the words and actions of many
copycat offenders. For instance, much like some fans of celebrity movie stars or pro-
fessional athletes start repeating their role models’ famous lines or wearing their cos-
tumes or uniforms, copycat killers often imitate the language and appearance of
previous mass killers. These connections often appear deeply personal and can pro-
vide the source of inspiration for future attacks. But if the media refused to publish the
names and photos of mass killers, it would be hard for anyone to connect with these
perpetrators on a personal and emotional level. After all, most people do not choose
role models based solely on a description of behavior, if they have never seen that
person’s face and do not even know that person’s name. Furthermore, if media reported
the stories of mass killings in more responsible ways that did not glamorize perpetra-
tors or overly dramatize these events (as suggested by Meindl & Ivy, 2018), this may
similarly diminish both the quantity and potency of school shooting fan subcultures
and copycat behaviors.
Media coverage of mass killers also has other major consequences: for instance, it
rewards past perpetrators with fame, provides an incentive for future fame seekers to
attack, and provides an incentive for perpetrators to kill as many victims as possible in
order to gain more attention (Lankford & Madfis, 2018). In prior research, Lankford
(2016) documented 24 examples of perpetrators who openly admitted seeking fame or
who directly contacted the media to get it, and cited additional cases where there is
strong circumstantial evidence. Some of these attackers were even competing with
each other to become the most famous mass shooter in history.
Unfortunately, there appears to be a direct link between the rewards offered by this
media attention and the psychological traits of those willing to kill for them. In this
issue, Bushman (2018) makes an extremely compelling case that many mass shooters
have narcissistic tendencies. He draws evidence from prior studies, government
reports, psychiatrists who have examined past perpetrators, and offenders’ statements
that correspond to items on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. As Bushman was
completing his article, current events provided yet another case: the 2017 Las Vegas
shooter was reportedly a “status obsessed narcissist” according to the law enforcement
officials in charge of that investigation, which suggests that he may have been a fame
seeker as well (Bailey, 2017). The danger is that narcissists often want to be the center
of attention and are willing to use aggression to protect their egos, and the media are
essentially offering them a stage.
On a societal level, this problem is further compounded by the fact that narcissistic
tendencies and desires for fame appear to be rapidly increasing in the American popu-
lation (Joiner, 2017; Pinsky & Young, 2008; Twenge & Campbell, 2009). This sug-
gests that media are rewarding mass killers with fame at the worst possible time:
during an era when these rewards are more desperately coveted than ever before. But
if media refuse to give these narcissistic killers the fame they desire, that would remove
one of their major motives for attacking in the first place.
In addition to the new findings described here, many other researchers have col-
lected evidence on the various consequences of media coverage of mass killings.
Unfortunately, an all too common one has been misinformation. For example, too
Lankford and Madfis 157
often, media accounts have promulgated inaccurate stereotypes and given viewers and
readers the misguided sense that most mass shooters are psychopathic or psychotic
loners (Madfis, 2014). Many scholars have also documented the excessive public fear
that people have of these attacks, largely due to the news they consume (Altheide,
2009; Madfis, 2016, 2017). Such deadly incidents certainly warrant major concern and
consideration, but problems emerge when people, including community leaders and
law enforcement officials, believe that mass killings occur far more frequently than
they actually do (Madfis, 2016). These misconceptions may be attributable to the
extensive volume of media coverage given to mass killings and the sensationalistic
ways in which coverage often focuses on perpetrators rather than on less exciting sta-
tistics about how rare these events actually are. In contrast, safer media coverage could
potentially reduce both copycats and public fear by avoiding the description of any
particular mass killing as part of an increasing trend, as this can serve to normalize the
behavior and exaggerate the prevalence of the problem (Meindl & Ivy, 2018).
Solutions for Making Media Coverage of Mass Killings
Safer
In accordance with the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics (2014), the
media already limit their reporting of some types of information to minimize potential
harms. For example, except in rare cases, they typically refrain from using profanity,
slurs, epithets, and other offensive language, even when it was used during a newswor-
thy event. They also typically avoid publishing images that contain nudity, sexually
explicit material, graphic violence, or corpses of the recently deceased. In addition,
major media organizations usually do not publish the names and photos of victims of
sexual harassment or sexual assault, unless the victims consent to being identified.
These decisions are all admirable. However, if the media are willing to limit their own
coverage to avoid being offensive or violating personal privacy, they should certainly
adopt a similar position when there is the potential to save lives.
And in fact, there are already some existing media policies with precisely that goal.
For instance, the media typically refrain from releasing information that would jeop-
ardize national security, if publishing it would clearly put lives in danger. Media cover-
age of suicide is also far more responsible than it used to be. Although stories about
suicide appear to have inadvertently inspired copycat suicides for hundreds of years
(Phillips, 1974), those potential consequences are now widely recognized. Both the
World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
have issued recommendations for media coverage of suicide, and most journalists,
reporters, editors, and producers are now aware that they need to be careful to avoid
producing contagion and copycat effects.
For this issue, Meindl and Ivy (2018) draw lessons from the media’s suicide pre-
vention efforts and apply them to mass killings. These are not completely distinct
subjects: Part of mass killing contagion may be attributable to suicide contagion,
because a high percentage of mass killers are suicidal as well. As these authors explain,
contagious and imitative behaviors have been studied for decades, and a lot is known
158 American Behavioral Scientist 62(2)
about how to prevent them. For instance, to reduce the likelihood of imitation, it is
important to avoid making the potential role model seem like someone of high social
status (e.g., a celebrity), to avoid rewarding that individual in any way (e.g., with sen-
sationalist coverage, fame, or attention), and to avoid portraying that individual as
competent (e.g., at accomplishing a mission or sending a message). Even coverage
that identifies individual mass killers and then characterizes them as dangerous,
aggressive, or menacing may be considered an attractive reward and sign of compe-
tence by some potential imitators.
Along with providing a series of recommendations for safer news reporting, Meindl
and Ivy (2018) also outline how the media could help reduce mass killings through
proactive information campaigns. Past media efforts have successfully changed public
perceptions of other highly imitative behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol use. With
mass killings, there may be a similar opportunity to degrade the allure of both these
attacks and their perpetrators among the audiences who find them most intriguing.
In the final article of this issue, Lankford and Madfis (2018) make a pragmatic and
evidence-based case for the change advocated by 149 experts at the beginning of this
piece. We ask the media to stop publishing the names and photos of mass killers
(except during ongoing searches for escaped suspects), but continue reporting the
other details of these crimes as needed. The article (a) reviews additional evidence on
the consequences of media coverage of mass shooters, (b) outlines the proposal and
how it would mitigate those consequences, (c) shows that its implementation is realis-
tic and has precedent, (d) discusses anticipated challenges, and (e) recommends future
steps for consensus building and implementation.
It is important to clarify a few things about this proposal. First, its scientific basis
does not depend on the assumption that all mass killers are fame seekers or copycats, or
that changing media coverage in the prescribed ways would stop all mass killings. For
comparison’s sake, smoking cigarettes has been proven to increase the risks of lung
cancer, but not all people with lung cancer smoked cigarettes, and reducing cigarette
smoking has not stopped all lung cancer. The key is making meaningful progress.
Second, the proposal is not a call for censorship or for government-mandated rules
to dictate how mass shootings may and may not be covered. Rather, it is a call for
media organizations to recognize their role in exacerbating this problem and to volun-
tarily make their coverage safer. If media stop publishing perpetrators’ names and
photos, these attackers’ identities will still be a matter of legal record and known by
many people, including law enforcement investigators, journalists, witnesses, fami-
lies, and local community members. The important thing is to deny mass killers the
celebrity status, fame, and free advertising that can be so dangerous.
Third, neither the proposal nor this special issue are designed to blame the media
for past mass killings. Until recently, the risks of publishing perpetrators’ names and
photos were not even known by many scholars, so the dangerous information that
appeared in news reports also appeared in our books and articles. But no longer.
Offenders’ names are largely absent from this special issue, which demonstrates how
effectively this entire subject can be discussed while minimizing potential harms. It is
actually far easier than commonly assumed: even in short articles with repeated
Lankford and Madfis 159
mentions, replacing an offender’s name with the year, attack location, and a word like
“shooter” or “suspect” (e.g., “the 2007 Virginia Tech shooter”) typically alters the
article’s total words by less than 1%.
This is why the opportunity to make media coverage of mass killers safer is so
exciting: it may strike that rare balance of being extremely low cost and extremely
high benefit. If major media organizations stop publishing perpetrator’s names and
photos, the actual words they use while reporting the news will be almost indistin-
guishable from the words they used before. They will not need to hire any new pho-
tographers or spend any more money on photos than they did before. The public will
not suddenly start ignoring media reports on major news events, such as mass killings.
In all likelihood, this will simply become the new normal, and future generations will
take it for granted that the news is reported this way, much like current generations
take it for granted that cigarettes are not advertised on television.
And most importantly, according to the consensus from many experts, innocent
lives will be saved. The individuals who are not shot and killed while they are at
school, work, church, or the movies will never realize how fortunate they were to
avoid becoming tragic victims. But at least for them and their families, it will have
made all the difference.
Looking forward, we also hope that the new insights gleaned from this special issue
about media coverage of mass killers will lead to deeper understandings of the causes
of these deadly attacks and how to prevent them. By building on this growing body of
scientific knowledge, scholars, law enforcement officials, and media members may be
able to develop new transformative solutions which have yet to be envisioned.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the generous and insightful reviewers who helped make this special
issue possible: Jesse Abdenour, Nils Böckler, Kyle Holody, Stephanie Howells, Michael Jetter,
Erin M. Kearns, David Kennedy, Ralph Larkin, Jennifer Murray, Glenn Muschert, Paul Perrin,
Michael Rocque, Christine Sarteschi, and Julie Wiest. Your input significantly enhanced the
quality of the final product, and we look forward to reading more of your research and scholar-
ship in the future. We would also like to thank Editor-in-Chief Laura Lawrie, whose support and
encouragement throughout this process has been tremendously appreciated.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
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Author Biographies
Adam Lankford is an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at The University
of Alabama. He is the author of two books and many peer-reviewed journal articles on various
types of criminal behavior, including mass murder, mass shootings, and terrorism. His research
findings have been covered by media outlets in the United States and more than 40 countries
worldwide.
Eric Madfis is an associate professor of criminal justice at The University of Washington
Tacoma. He has published numerous articles and book chapters about the causes and prevention
of mass murder in schools and other settings. His book, The Risk of School Rampage: Assessing
and Preventing Threats of School Violence (2014, Palgrave Macmillan), explores how threats
of multiple-victim rampage shootings are assessed and prevented in American public schools.
... Mass shootings, specifically, have a strong effect on media coverage and news reporting (Fox et al. 2021). Media consumers are exposed to mass shootings in intentional and inadvertent ways -from seeing headlines broadcasted on television news to browsing Internet websites to scrolling on social media -postattack details, videos, and commentary are omnipresent across media platforms (Lankford and Madfis 2018). Yet, prior research illustrates that mass shootings vary in newsworthiness; that is, several factors and characteristics of these violent events play a critical role in the level of attention received by the media. ...
... Prior to their attack many public mass murderers express suicidal ideation and many die by suicide at or near the scene of the attack (Lankford & Madfis, 2018;Lankford et al., 2021;Capellan et al., 2023). In comparison to the approximately 4% of US murderers who commit murder-suicide, Lankford (2015) found that 38% of mass shooters from 1966 to 2010 died by suicide during the attack, with additional offenders dying through "suicide by cop." ...
Article
Researchers of public mass murder have identified a growing list of correlates and relevant criminological theories but have not fully appreciated a previously identified and unusual characteristic of these events—offenders rarely make any effort to escape the scene of their attack, either dying there by suicide (or at the hands of others) or accepting that the attack is their “final act” in society and that they will be arrested and die in prison. Although these outcomes objectively differ, in at least one way they can be considered functionally equivalent—each extinguishes the offender’s existing life. This nearly universal characteristic appears worthy of increased research attention. One potential avenue for future efforts rests on a leading theory of suicide—The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide—according to which suicidality precedes and underlies all murder-suicides. Consideration of this theory points to potential avenues for reassessing known correlates and existing theoretical work.
... Previous studies of online school shooting communities have almost exclusively focused on media coverage of school shooting acts, narratives of mass violence, or the global school shooting subculture [16][17][18][19]. Subgroups of users involved in such communities were classified and analyzed with the online ethnography method [20][21][22]. ...
Article
Full-text available
As network structure of virtual communities related to suicide and school shooting still remains unaddressed in scientific literature, we employed basic demographics analysis and social network analysis (SNA) to show common features, as well as distinct facets in the communities’ structure and their followers’ network. Open and publicly accessible data of over 16,000 user accounts were collected with a social media monitoring system. Results showed that adolescents and young adults were the main audience of suicide-related and school shooting fan communities. List of blocked virtual groups related to school shooting was more extensive than that of suicide, which indicates a high radicalization degree of school shooting virtual groups. The homogeneity of followers’ interests was more typical for subscribers of suicide-related communities. A social network analysis showed that followers of school shooting virtual groups were closely interconnected with their peers, and their network was monolithic, while followers of suicide-related virtual groups were fragmented into numerous communities, so presence of a giant connected component in their network can be questioned. We consider our results highly relevant for better understanding the network aspects of virtual information existence, harmful information spreading, and its potential impact on society.
... After the Blumenau tragedy, some newspapers were careful not to publish information from the perpetrator, including specific identifying personal data, photos or videos, which could lead to the glorification and spread of the phenomenon. 1,15 Box 1 -Recommendations for the responsible media coverage of mass murder and mass shooting incidents 14,16,17 • Do not name or provide identifying information of the perpetrator. • Do not provide photos or videos of the perpetrator. ...
... Bushman argued that low self-esteem should not be taken as the only factor behind fame-seeking behavior, demonstrating a link between narcissistic tendencies and the appetite for fame of this class of shooters (10). In a later study about media coverage of mass shooters, Lankford and Madifs supported the link observed by Bushman, proposing that "narcissists often want to be the center of attention and are willing to use aggression to protect their egos, and the media are essentially offering them a stage" (11). Langman (12) studied copycat behavior among fame-seeking mass shooters suggesting that they do not imitate the methodology of their role models but rather that they are inspired by their role models' personality and motivation. ...
Article
Full-text available
Mass shootings are becoming more frequent in the United States, as we routinely learn from the media about attempts that have been prevented or tragedies that destroyed entire communities. To date, there has been limited understanding of the modus operandi of mass shooters, especially those who seek fame through their attacks. Here, we explore whether the attacks of these fame-seeking mass shooters were more surprising than those of others and clarify the link between fame and surprise in mass shootings. We assembled a dataset of 189 mass shootings from 1966 to 2021, integrating data from multiple sources. We categorized the incidents in terms of the targeted population and shooting location. We measured "surprisal" (often known as "Shannon information content") with respect to these features, and we scored fame from Wikipedia traffic data-a commonly used metric of fame. Surprisal was significantly higher for fame-seeking mass shooters than non-fame-seeking ones. We also registered a significant positive correlation between fame and surprisal controlling for the number of casualties and injured victims. Not only do we uncover a link between fame-seeking behavior and surprise in the attacks but also we demonstrate an association between the fame of a mass shooting and its surprise.
... To wit, some participants can and do "take exemplary acts" (Gamson, 1996) to influence others and publicize the movement. Those exemplary acts in turn go instantly viral, generate instant feedback, and encourage imitation in real life (Lankford & Madfis, 2018;Van der Vegt et al., 2020). Thus, the mass shooter at the El Paso Walmart introduced his manifesto by directly referencing the Christchurch mass shooter's manifesto, which was published on a white suprema-cist website (Dearden, 2019). ...
... Accurate reporting and satisfying the public's right to know can inadvertently sensationalize mass shootings, provide notoriety to fame-seeking perpetrators, and potentially inspire future perpetrators to carry out similar acts through contagion and copycat effects. As mass shootings continue to occur in the US, researchers, professors, law enforcement personnel, and public campaigns have called for journalists and news outlets to minimize harm by greatly reducing or ending the publication of perpetrators' names and to refrain from publishing photos, manifestos, and general likenesses when reporting on mass violence (Amman et al. 2017;Lankford and Madfis 2018;No Notoriety n.d.). ...
Article
Full-text available
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.
... Mass public shooting research finds perpetrators often express suicidal ideations and motives, as well as general indifference to their own life (Lankford & Madfis, 2018;Silva & Greene-Colozzi, 2019b). To this end, research has considered mass public shooting conclusions, examining the different rates of survival, being killed, and suicide during the attack (Capellan & Gomez, 2018;Capellan & Jiao, 2019;Kelly, 2010;Silva, 2021). ...
Article
This study provides an in‐depth analysis of American mass public shooting conclusions between 1966 and 2017. Specifically, this work examines differences in factors contributing to the perpetrator's likelihood of surviving, being killed, and committing suicide. Ten hypotheses, rooted in previous homicide, suicide, homicide‐suicide, and mass public shooting literature consider different psychological, situational, and background factors shaping the outcome of mass public shootings. Significant findings indicate factors influencing perpetrators' suicide include suicidal ideation, higher victim counts, and suicide copycat effects. Factors influencing perpetrators being killed similarly include higher victim counts, the arrival of law enforcement, lethal/non‐lethal resistance, and government targets. This investigation provides practical implications for practitioners and policymakers, especially law enforcement and mental health practitioners, seeking to develop intervention and prevention strategies for addressing suicidal ideation and its most lethal outcome: mass public shootings.
Article
We examine if adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) directly affect the amount of harm (victims and injuries) caused in mass public shootings or whether ACEs have a mediating or moderating influence on a variety of factors previously associated with the amount of harm caused in mass shootings. Using publicly available data, our results show that ACEs do not directly affect harm. In the mediation model, results indicate the number of ACEs experienced by the shooters indirectly affected the harm of the event, but only through the shooters possessing fame-seeking motivations. In the moderation model, the significant interactions show the strongest relationships between ACEs and harm for those without mental distress or life stressors or signs of crisis. Recommendations for future research and practice are offered.
Article
Background: Although an important subset of mass shooters has admitted copying previous shooters, there has been almost no empirical research on the similarities between mass shooting role models and their copycats. Such analysis is essential for understanding who is most susceptible to the influence of high-profile mass shooters and what behaviors they are likely to copy. Methods: We first compiled all documented instances we could find globally of public mass shooters and active shooters becoming a role model for a copycat from 1966 to 2022 (n = 205) and calculated how often their risk profiles and behaviors were similar. Next, we ran simulated matches (n = 2000) and used binary logistic regression to test whether copycats were significantly more similar to their role models than to a random shooter. Findings: Compared to a random shooter, copycat attackers were significantly closer to their role models in age and more likely to share the same sex, race, country, incident location type, and offender outcome. Nearly 80% of copycats attacked more than one year after their role model, and the average temporal gap was approximately eight years. Copycats averaged significantly fewer victims killed and wounded than their role models. Conclusions: The risk that high-profile mass shooters influence copycat attackers persists for many years, with the most susceptible individuals sharing characteristics of the role model shooters themselves. These findings could be used to make media coverage of mass shootings safer and to inform triage and case prioritization for threat assessment and violence prevention.
Article
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This study is grounded in extensive online ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with 22 people who expressed a deep interest in school shootings. Such people form a global online subculture; they share common interests and find the same cultural objects important. Media accounts of school shootings have fueled this subculture; its members participate in the re-creation and circulation of online media content and give new meanings to that content. We found that people deeply interested in school shootings do not form a homogenous group, and they are divided into four subgroups within the subculture based on members’ focus and interest: researchers, fan girls, Columbiners, and copycats. Out of these, copycats are the only subgroup explicitly interested in replicating the acts, although subgroup membership can overlap, and members can move from one subgroup to another. Beyond copycats, other subgroups also participate in giving perpetrators fame and circulate reasons for the shootings. These accounts may influence future perpetrators.
Article
Full-text available
Contagion and copycat behavior among mass killers is often discussed in the media when there are multiple attacks within a short span of time. Proximity in time, however, does not necessarily mean that one attack inspired another. This study examines the clearest cases of role modeling and fame seeking among mass killers in which the perpetrators personally acknowledged these types of influence and motivation in their own lives. Instead of simply categorizing potential copycat offenders in a “yes”/“no” binary fashion, it outlines many different types of influence, imitation, and inspiration and then provides evidence on perpetrators who represent examples of each type. Overall, findings suggest that most killers were not gaining insights into attack methodology from their role models, but rather were drawn to the prior perpetrators for a variety of personal reasons. Looking ahead, because of the frequency of mass killers citing previous perpetrators as role models or sources of inspiration, it is critical that media outlets give careful consideration to how they cover such incidents.
Article
Full-text available
For many years, the conventional wisdom was that most acts of aggression and violence stem from insecurities and low self-esteem. The possibility that some mass shooters have low self-esteem, low self-worth, or painful personal insecurities should not lead us to overlook another more likely possibility: that a significant number of mass shooters may have large egos and narcissistic tendencies. This article will (a) describe the psychological concepts of narcissism and narcissistic traits; (b) review previous research on links between narcissism, aggression, and violence; (c) review evidence that some mass shooters exhibit narcissistic traits; and (d) discuss the implications of narcissistic mass shooters for society and the media coverage of their shooting rampages.
Article
Full-text available
Prior research has shown that many mass shooters have explicitly admitted they want fame and have directly reached out to media organizations to get it. These fame-seeking offenders are particularly dangerous because they kill and wound significantly more victims than other active shooters, they often compete for attention by attempting to maximize victim fatalities, and they can inspire contagion and copycat effects. However, if the media changes how they cover mass shooters, they may be able to deny many offenders the attention they seek and deter some future perpetrators from attacking. We propose that media organizations should no longer publish the names or photos of mass shooters (except during ongoing searches for escaped suspects), but report everything else about these crimes in as much detail as desired. In this article, we (1) review the consequences of media coverage of mass shooters, (2) outline our proposal, (3) show that its implementation is realistic and has precedent, (4) discuss anticipated challenges, and (5) recommend future steps for consensus building and implementation.
Article
Given the intense news coverage that mass shootings receive and recent findings on contagion effects, it is important to examine how news media organizations cover these crimes. While reporting the “who” of news is a standard journalistic practice, there is growing debate regarding the extent to which the perpetrators of mass shootings should be named, pictured, and discussed in news media coverage. Within the theoretical framework of agenda-setting, this study examined U.S. newspaper photographic coverage following three major school shootings. Through content analysis of 4,934 photographs from 9 days of newspaper coverage, this study made several key findings about the overall prominence of photo use, changes in photo use during the 3 days following mass shootings, and comparisons between photos of perpetrators and victims. In particular, the study found empirical evidence that on a photos-per-individual basis, the coverage gave more attention to perpetrators than to individual deceased victims by a ratio of 16 to 1. Given contagion effects, this study finding raises serious concerns about current practices in news media publication of perpetrator photos. Although the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics encourages news media members to seek truth and report it, the code also emphasizes moral imperatives to “balance the public’s need for information against potential harms” and “avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.”
Article
Journalists often assume that consumers are drawn to stories of mass murder because of their morbid curiosity. As a result, cable television reports and news stories tend to focus on details of the killer’s biography and modus operandi, possibly neglecting aspects of an incident that could provide consumers with practical knowledge for preventing a massacre and, at the same time, would not inspire future killers looking for fame and celebrity. For this study, we manipulated the news focus of a story about a high school rampage—putting it on the killer, the first victim, or a heroic figure who ended the violence—in an experiment conducted via Qualtrics survey software with a sample of 212 U.S. adults. Additional independent variables in the analysis included respondents’ gender, age, and degree of fear. The dependent variable consisted of a measure of respondents’ interest in reading a news story about the school shooting. Results from a four-way analysis of variance indicated that subjects were significantly more interested in the school shooting when the focus of attention was on a courageous bystander who stopped the onslaught than when the focus was on either a victim or the killer. Moreover, fearful subjects were significantly more likely than their fearless counterparts to express interest in a news story about mass murder. Age also made a significant difference, with respondents in their early 40s (who may be particularly likely to have children in school) indicating more interest in mass murder news stories than those in their mid-30s. No significant interactions were obtained.
Article
A mass killing is a complex behavior that is the product of a range of variables. Recent research suggests one such variable by showing that when a mass killing occurs there is a heightened chance of another occurring in the near future. This increase in probability has been referred to as contagion and one possible mechanism for contagion may be generalized imitation. Generalized imitation requires the presence of some model to prompt imitation, and we suggest media reporting methods as a prominent model inspiring future mass killings. This article analyzes mass killings as the culmination of a sequence of thoughts and actions that are influenced by environmental events including media reports of mass killings. We then evaluate media reporting guidelines and research related to the prevention of suicide and other imitational behaviors to identify reactive and proactive strategies that could minimize the likelihood of one mass killing inducing another.
Article
In recent years, some critics have suggested that the media make mass killers into celebrities by giving them too much attention. However, whether the media coverage these offenders receive actually approaches the amounts given to celebrities has never been tested. This study compared perpetrators of seven mass killings during 2013–2017 with more than 600 celebrities over the same time period. Findings indicate that the mass killers received approximately $75 million in media coverage value, and that for extended periods following their attacks they received more coverage than professional athletes and only slightly less than television and film stars. In addition, during their attack months, some mass killers received more highly valued coverage than some of the most famous American celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Jennifer Aniston. Finally, most mass killers received more coverage from newspapers and broadcast/cable news than the public interest they generated through online searches and Twitter seems to warrant. Unfortunately, this media attention constitutes free advertising for mass killers that may increase the likelihood of copycats.
Article
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 between 2000 and 2012. 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.