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60 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 273 (2019)
A Call to the Media to Change Reporting Practices for the Coverage of Mass Shootings

handle is hein.journals/wajlp60 and id is 283 raw text is: A Call to the Media to Change Reporting Practices for the Coverage of Mass Shootings Jaclyn Schildkraut * INTRODUCTION Mass shootings continue to be a cause for concern in the United States, fueled in part by the extensive media coverage these events garner. When word of another shooting breaks, the news media often interrupt regularly scheduled programming with reporting or live updates from the scene; newspaper stories are churned out at a rapid pace, expedited by the availability of digital media. Depending on the severity of the attack, the coverage may last hours, days, or, in the most extreme examples like the recent shootings in Las Vegas, NV (2017), Sutherland Spring, TX (2017), Parkland, FL (2018), and Pittsburgh, PA (2018), weeks. Despite the highly sensational nature of mass shootings, however, not all events receive equitable attention in the media, with coverage often skewed towards those that are the most lethal.' While the volume of the coverage may differ between events, the reporting patterns of mass shootings share one distinct feature: an overwhelming emphasis on the perpetrators once they have been identified. Once this information is known, the perpetrators' names and faces are splashed across television screens, newspaper pages, and the internet alike. While some argue that there is an investigative value in sharing such information, such as determining a motive, creating a profile, and potentially preventing future shootings, the reality is that these ends can be achieved without turning mass shooters into media celebrities. * . Jaclyn Schildkraut is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego. Her research interests include mass/school shootings, homicide trends, mediatization effects, moral panics, and crime theories. She is the co-author of Mass Shootings: Media, Myths, and Realities and Columbine, 20 Years Later and Beyond: Lessons from Tragedy. She also has published in a number of journals including Homicide Studies, American Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, Crime, Law and Social Change, and Security Journal, as well as several edited volumes. 1. Jaclyn Schildkraut, et al., Mass Shootings and the Media: Why All Events are Not Created Equal, 41 J. CRIME & JUST. 223, 223 (2018). 273

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