NCJ Number
186371
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2000 Pages: 364-399
Editor(s)
M. Dwayne Smith
Date Published
November 2000
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This study analyzes coverage by newspapers, network television news, and newsworthy magazines of mass killings that occurred between 1976 and 1996. The study indicates that although virtually all of the mass murders were locally newsworthy, only a small minority were nationally.
Abstract
The study reports that widely publicized mass killings were more likely to involve large numbers of fatal and wounded victims, stranger victims, public locations, assault weapons, workplace violence, interracial victim-offender relationships, and, to a lesser extent, older offenders and gun use. Given that the high profile incidents were the most extreme and atypical mass murders, it was argued that the overemphasis placed on these massacres was part and parcel of the news media’s attempt to maximize the size of their audience and therefore their profits by catering to the public’s fascination with rare and sensational acts of violence. The study concludes by discussing the significant implications on the social construction of mass murder when an overemphasis is placed on the rarest and most sensational mass killings. Notes and references