The Internet and Mass Shooting Events
Welcome to the Tow-Knight Center Initiative in Internet Studies newsletter. Today we’re looking at the impact of both social and news media on the radicalization of mass shooters, research that explains links between mental illness and deadly shooting events, and more.
- Moving beyond the debunked conspiracy theories, targeted attacks, and fact-checks around the country’s most recent deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, local journalists began surfacing the truth around the official timeline.
Narratives, and blame, shift again as dysfunction engulfs shooting probe | Texas Tribune | Joshua Fechter, Reese Oxner, and Uriel J. García
- These conflicting reports have prompted a Justice Department investigation into the Uvalde Police Department’s response to the active shooter emergency. Local media reported that the police chief isn’t cooperating, but recent coverage has said otherwise. This back-and-forth raises more questions and, as a result, the potential for more conspiracy theories.
Less than two weeks earlier, a racist mass murderer in Buffalo who targeted the Black community there and killed ten, claimed, ‘4chan made him do it.’ His exposure to a white supremacist theory that predates social media has been amplified by conservative influencers such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Fox News's Tucker Carlson.
But what evidence is there to support online radicalization and mass shooting events?
Pathways to School Shooting Subculture: Re-thinking Theory Across Strain, Imitation, and Digital Mediation | Jonatan Mizrahi-Werner, Martine Bech Diederichsen, Benjamin Schou Ilsøe, Jakob Demant, and Atte Oksanen | May 24, 2022
- Via a narrative literature review, we identified three explanatory themes, namely strain, imitation, and digital mediation. These were synthesized in order to explain more thoroughly how individuals come to participate in the online school shooting subculture, possibly leading to their perpetration of school shootings.
Deep interest in school shootings and online radicalization | Jenni Raitanen and Atte Oksanen | Journal of Threat Assessment and Management | 2019
- Data from this research indicates that becoming deeply interested in school shootings seems to strengthen an individual’s opinions more than it changes them. Research and risk assessment of school shootings should focus more on the radicalization process of school shooters because it is also done in the area of terrorism studies.
Extremist ideology as a complex contagion: the spread of far-right radicalization in the United States between 2005 and 2017 | Mason Youngblood | Nature | July 31, 2020
- Both social media usage and group membership enhance the spread of extremist ideology, suggesting that online and physical organizing remain the primary recruitment tools of the far-right movement.
What research explains the links between mental illness and mass shooters?
Mental illness and access to supportive care are commonly referred to in the aftermath of mass shootings as either the culprit or the preventative solution. But is that accurate?
Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms | Jonathan M. Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish | American Journal of Public Health | February 2015
- A number of seminal studies asserting links between violence and mental illness — including a 1990 study by Swanson et al cited as fact by the New York Times in 2013 — have been critiqued for overstating connections between serious mental illness and violent acts.
Mass Shootings and Mental Illness | James L. Knoll IV and George D. Annas| American Psychiatric Association | 2016
- Although some mass shooters are found to have a history of psychiatric illness, no reliable research has suggested that a majority of perpetrators are primarily influenced by serious mental illness as opposed to, for example, psychological turmoil flowing from other sources. As a result, debate on how to prevent mass shootings has focused heavily on issues that are 1) highly politicized, 2) grossly oversimplified, and 3) unlikely to result in productive solutions.
Mass Shootings in America: Moving Beyond Newtown | James Alan Fox and Monica J. DeLateur | Homicide Studies | December 18, 2013
- In the aftermath of high-profile mass shootings, political leaders often rally to address the needs of the mentally ill. Unfortunately, this timing tends to stigmatize the vast majority of people who suffer from mental illness as if they too are mass murderers in waiting (see Barry, McGinty, Vernick, & Webster, 2013). However, no clear relationship between psychiatric diagnosis and mass murder has been established (see Busch & Cavanaugh, 1986; Dietz, 1986; Taylor & Gunn, 1999).
Is news coverage inspiring mass shooters?
Questions around social media’s influence and mental illness have been and will continue to be researched. But what about news media?
Mass Shootings: The Role of the Media in Promoting Generalized Imitation | James N. Meindl and Jonathan W. Ivy | American Journal of Public Health | March 2017
- This study provides an overview of generalized imitation and discusses how the way in which the media report a mass shooting can increase the likelihood of another shooting event. They also propose media reporting guidelines to minimize imitation and further decrease the likelihood of a mass shooting.
What role does the media play in creating copycat mass shooters? | Alex Pew, Lauren Goldbeck, Caroline Halsted, and Diana Zuckerman | National Center for Health Research | August 2017
- School shootings tend to get the most attention, and since 2000 on average there has been one school shooting every 31.6 days. In 2018, however, there has been an average of one school shooting (accidental or intentional) every week. Each of these incidents spread through mass media and social media, which focus on the shooter and the shooter’s motivations.
The Effect of Media Coverage on Mass Shootings | Michael Jetter and Jay K. Walker| Institute of Labor Economics | October 2018
- The following pages present what is, to our knowledge, the first empirical approach to test for a causal effect between television news coverage of shootings and the occurrence of future mass shootings.
Two Professors Found What Creates a Mass Shooter. Will Politicians Pay Attention? | Melanie Warner | Politico | May 27, 2022
- Mass shooters overwhelmingly fit a certain profile, say Jillian Peterson and James Densley, which means it’s possible to ID and treat them before they commit violence.
Upcoming Tech and Media Events
Monday — Friday, June 6–10 [Virtual] | RightsCon offers a platform for thousands of participants from around the world to convene, connect, and coordinate. Join our global community of business leaders, activists, technologists, policymakers, journalists, philanthropists, researchers, and artists to move forward your work and contribute to a shared agenda for our digital future. | Hosted by Access Now| Register for free by June 3
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Week of July 18th — 29th [Virtual]| Call for participants: Investigating the Influence Industry: Summer School ’22 | We are looking for journalists, researchers, and civil society investigators from across the world with a passion for conducting investigations into the political influence industry and how personal data and data-driven technologies are used to influence voters, elections and political processes. | Hosted by Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project and Exposing the Invisible project | Apply by July 4
