Media Coverage of Parkland Florida
Shooting
Julie Jensen
Disaster Response and the Public
September 6, 2018
Doctor John Fisher
Media Coverage of Parkland Florida
Shooting
Executive summary
The
media has a responsibility to inform the public and provide accurate
information concerning events that occur locally, nationally and
internationally. The media responded to
the Parkland Florida shooting but framed their reporting to promote gun control
and encourage stronger mental health screenings. The reporting including interviews from
underage teenagers and publishing legally obtained confidential private
material. Additionally they
sensationalized the perpetrator, which tends to promote copycat shootings. This case study examines the media coverage,
provides the recommendations to scrutinize the media coverage and how those
recommendations can be implemented.
Description of the Case
On
February 14, 2018 at about 2:20 p.m., a former student (Nikolas Cruz) of
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida pulled the fire alarm. As students proceeded to evacuate the
building, Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rife. The
shooting lasted six minutes and left 17 dead and 17 wounded people. Cruz was arrested about an hour and a half
later.
Problem
The
media covering the event had hidden agendas.
The news reports were framed to promote gun control and mental
illness. The reports also
sensationalized the victims and the event.
Some of the processes utilized by the media were questionable. The coverage of the event spawns the
following questions. Does the media
coverage inspire copycat shootings? Even
though obtaining underage witness information can be legal, is it ethical? Is publishing any legally obtained
information ethical? Does the media influence policy makers to make changes to
gun control and mental illness?
Data Analysis
Mass
shootings always have high media coverage.
The seriousness of shootings is severe and the media has a tendency to
frame the mass shootings as either more frequent or more deadly. There is also a tendency to focus on issues
of gun control and mental illness. The
objective of journalists is to bring the story to the public and that may
override some ethical results. In the
shooting incident in Parkland, underage witnesses were interviewed as early as
the day after the incident. While
parental permission had been obtained, the question remains whether the
interview was an ethical step and a necessary one to bring the story to the
public.
A
common practice with journalists is to report on the perpetrator. The news coverage often gives more attention
to the individual(s) who committed the crime rather than the victims. In a study following three major school
shootings, the photos used indicated a ratio of 16 to 1 of perpetrator to
victims (Smith Dahmen, 2018). The study
of the media contagion effect with suicide parallels the mass shootings. The
intense sensationalization of the perpetrator and the event can inspire copycat
shootings.
The
effects of the media coverage impact policy makers, the American Rife
Association, mental health individuals and professionals, the families of the
victims, the school, and essentially the entire public. The impact of this news story has the
greatest impact on those suffering from mental illness, gun control advocates
and opponents and underage witnesses.
The
framing done by the media tended to focus on the two main debates of gun access
and mental health. The initial headlines
tended to present the mental illness explanation rather than focusing on how he
was able to buy a gun in the first place.
The headlines used terminology such as “troubled former student” and
“maniac” to support their mental illness theory (Lombardi, 2018).
Even
if mental health were the issue with the Parkland Florida shooting, it does not
mean that a person with a mental illness is predisposed to perform a violent
act. It also does not mean that a person
who performs a violent shooting act must be mentally ill. The call to focus on mental health problems
to prevent future mass shootings is important but is not likely to have any
affect on gun violence (Frank, 2018).
Additionally, a mass killer’s behavior is not pinpointed to one single
cause. There is usually a list of
attributes that contribute to the behavior even if one factor stands out
(Meindl & Ivy, 2018).
The
Sun Sentinel came under fire when it published confidential information from
Cruz’s educational record. Other media
organizations supported the Sun Sentinel to prevent court proceedings against
the Sun Sentinel and two of its reporters.
The editor-in-chief of the Sun Sentinel said, “The Sun Sentinel obtained
this report lawfully, found its contents to be of great public interest, and
did its duty” (Olmeda, 2018). While the
record was obtained legally and the media organizations supported the release
of information, it is debatable whether the media reported ethically.
The
day after the shooting, NBC interviewed teenaged Samantha Grady, a witness to
the shooting of her classmate and best friend.
It was clear that Grady was upset and traumatized. While NBC has obtained permission from Grady’s
parents, the interview was exploitative.
The question is widely debated on whether a teenager can give informed
consent and if so, if it is ethical to conduct the interview (Farhi, 2018).
Key Decision Criteria
The
difficultly with solving the issues with media coverage involve the balance of
reporting and crossing the line. News
outlets have a responsibility to inform the public and to accurately report the
incidents. Even when the journalists
stay within the outlines of their legal obligations, they still can have an
influence by framing their articles to sway the public.
In
order to achieve balanced reporting, the articles need to focus on facts and
not assumptions. The coverage of the
perpetrator needs to eliminate sensation and the name of the individual. The articles should not be framed to impact
policies or sway public opinion with inaccurate information or deductions. Lastly, information obtained legally must be
scrutinized to ascertain if publication is ethical.
Alternatives analysis
The
first step would be to eliminate the name of the perpetrator from all news coverage. This allows copycats to realize that there
will not be any fame associated with a mass shooting.
All
news headlines should reflect the incident accurately and avoid framing. Framing can influence the public to believe
violence stems from mental illness and that all crimes are committed with
guns.
Interviews
with underage witnesses should be subject to a verification process or
eliminated entirely. Confidential
information obtained legally should be reviewed to determine if is necessary to
the story and if it violates any individual’s privacy.
Recommendations
The
media can and will report the news. The
balance between legal and ethical will always be debatable. Each media outlet defines the interpretation
of what is newsworthy differently. Since
the media relies on the first amendment rights there may be little that can be
done to require them to report responsibly.
The only recommendation provided here is to eliminate the name of the
perpetrator from coverage.
Action and Implementation
Plan
There
are a number of campaigns established to limit or eliminate the perpetrator’s
name from being published. While media
has shown some restraint, journalists have not eliminated the notoriety that
accompanies a mass shooting. Since the
media has shown restraint in other cases once researchers provided evidence
that a suicide can create a contagion, it is possible to accumulate a similar
type research for mass shooters.
The
action would be to conduct a study illustrating the influence the media has for
copycat shooters and provide this information to media organizations.
References
Farhi, P. (2018, February 15). Explaining or
exploiting? A mass shooting raises questions about media coverage. Retrieved
from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/explaining-or-exploiting-a-mass-shooting-raises-questions-about-media-coverage/2018/02/15/18a00da6-1274-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html
Frank, N. (2018, June 25). Myths About Mass
Shootings. Retrieved from https://hubpages.com/politics/Myths-About-Mass-Shootings
Lombardi, D. (2018). Critical Discourse
Analysis of online News Headlines: A Case of the Stoneman Douglas High School
Shooting. Retrieved from https://muep.mau.se/handle/2043/25801
Meindl, J. N., Ivy, J. W. (2018,
February 3). Reducing Media-Induced Mass Killings: Lessons From Suicide
Prevention. American Behavioral Scientist
62(2), 242-259. doi:10.1177/0002764218756918
Olmeda, R. (2018, August 16). Judge blasts Sun
Sentinel for publishing confidential information in Parkland school shooting
case. Retrieved from
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-school-shooting-contempt-hearing-20180814-story.html
Smith Dahmen, N. (2018). Visually
Reporting Mass Shootings: U.S. Newspaper Photographic Coverage of Three Mass
School Shootings. American Behavorial
Scientist 62(2) 163-180. doi:10.1177/0002764218756921
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