Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The study identifies seven rhetorical strategies newspapers use to frame the acts of violence as terrorism or crime by comparatively analyzing the news coverage of the Ft. Hood and the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard shootings in three major newspapers. It examines the framing of the incidents, the strategies used to constitute the frames, the functions these strategies serve, and the media’s contribution to the discourse of terror.

Keywords

framing terror crime Muslims rhetoric discourse mass shooting

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ahmed

(2015, January 8). Less than 2 percent of terrorist attacks in the E.U. are religiously motivated. Thinkprogress. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-terrorism-europe

Armbrost

(2010). Modeling terrorism and political violence. International Relations, 24, 414-432. doi:10.1177/0047117810385779

Berger

(2009, November 9). Army chief concerned for Muslim troops. The New York Times, p. A1.

Brooks

(2009, November 10). The rush to therapy. The New York Times, p. A35.

Burke

(1969). A grammar of motives. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Carey

Cave

Alvarez

(2009, November 8). For therapist in the military, painful stories. The New York Times, p. A1.

Chuang

(2012). Representations of foreign versus (Asian) American identity in a mass shooting case: Newspaper coverage of the 2009 Binghamton massacre. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 89, 244-260. doi:10.1177/1077699012439179

Chuang

Roemer

R. C.

(2013). The immigrant Muslim American at the boundary of insider and outsider: Representations of Faisal Shahzad as “homegrown” terrorist. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 90, 89-107. doi:10.1177/1077699012468740

Chuang

Roemer

R. C.

(2014). Shifting signifiers of otherness: The 2002 “D.C. snipers” in the U.S. Press. Communication, Culture & Critique, 7, 541-558. doi:10.1111/cccr.12066

10.

Creswell

J. W.

Clark

V. L. P.

(2010). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

11.

Dao

(2009, November 6). Told of war horror, gunman feared deployment. The New York Times, p. A1.

12.

Dorell

(2013, September 18). Shooter had aggressive past yet still had clearance. USA Today, p. A9.

13.

Dreazen

Campoy

(2009, November 6). Lethal rampage at Fort Hood: Army psychiatrist about to deploy to Iraq suspected of killing 12, wounding at least 31. The Wall Street Journal, p. A1.

14.

Ex-Sailor’s Rampage. (2013, September 17). Ex-sailor’s rampage leaves dozen dead, stuns capital. The Wall Street Journal, p. A1.

15.

Featherstone

Holohan

Poole

(2010). Discourses of the war on terror: Construction of the Islamic other after 7/7. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 6, 169-186. doi:10.1386/mcp.6.2.169_1

16.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2005). Reports and publications: Terrorism 2002-2005. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02_05#terror_05sum

17.

Fernandez

(2013, September 17). Suspect in shooting had interest in Thai culture, and problems with the law. The New York Times, p. A14.

18.

Freedman

Thussu

D. K.

(2012). Dynamics of media and terrorism. In Freedman

Thussu

D. K.

(Eds.), Media and terrorism: Global perspectives (pp. 1-20). London, England: SAGE.

19.

Gabriel

Shanker

(2013, September 19). Officials never learned of police doubts on gunman’s stability. The New York Times, p. A20.

20.

Goffman

(1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

21.

Goode

Nir

S. M.

Fernandez

(2013, September 20). Signs of distress multiplied on killer’s path to Navy Yard. The New York Times, p. A1.

22.

Herbert

(2009, November 7). Stress beyond belief. The New York Times, p. A23.

23.

Holody

K. J.

Park

Zhang

(2013). Racialization of the Virginia Tech shootings: A comparison of local and national newspapers. Journalism Studies, 14, 568-583. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2012.726499

24.

Iyengar

Simon

(1993). News coverage of the Gulf crisis and public opinion: A study of agenda-setting, priming, and framing. Communication Research, 20, 365-383. doi:10.1177/009365093020003002

25.

Jackson

(2005). Writing the war on terror: Language, politics, and counter-terrorism. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press.

26.

Jervis

(2009, November 11). Remembering Fort Hood’s fallen soldiers; Obama: “Tragedy even worse on American soil.” USA Today, p. A2.

27.

Jervis

Johnson

Michaels

Vanden Brook

(2013, September 18). A trail of scrapes with the law, odd behaviors: Aaron Alexis was also devout, his friends say. USA Today, p. A1.

28.

Johnston

Shane

(2009, November 10). U.S. was aware of suspect’s tie to Yemeni cleric. The New York Times, p. A1.

29.

Krauss

Dao

(2009, November 7). Details trickle out as army tests sole-killer theory. The New York Times, p. A1.

30.

Kumar

(2010). Framing Islam: The resurgence of orientalism during the Bush II era. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 34, 254-277. doi:10.1177/0196859910363174

31.

Kurzman

(2015, February 9). Terrorism cases involving Muslim-Americans, 2014. Retrieved from http://sites.duke.edu/tcths/files/2013/06/Kurzman_Terrorism_Cases_Involving_Muslim-Americans_2014.pdf

32.

Leger-Leinwand

Johnson

(2013, September 18). Moment by moment: How it all unfolded: Investigators are piecing together Monday’s tragedy. The USA Today, p. A8.

33.

Lewis

S. C.

Reese

S. D.

(2009). What is war on terror? Framing through the eyes of journalists. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 1, 85-102. doi:10.1177/107769900908600106

34.

McKinley

J. C.

Dao

(2009, November 9). After years of growing tensions, 7 minutes of bloodshed. The New York Times, p. A1.

35.

Media Alliance for Audited Media. (2013). Top 25 U.S. newspapers for March 2013. Retrieved from http://auditedmedia.com/news/blog/top-25-us-newspapers-for-march-2013.aspx

36.

Newman

Brick

(2009, November 7). Neighbor says Hasan gave belongings away before attack. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/us/07suspect.html?_r=0

37.

Obama

(2009, November 10). Remarks by the president at Fort Hood memorial service. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-memorial-service-fort-hood

38.

Obama

(2013, September 22). Remarks by the president at the memorial service for victims of the Navy Yard shooting. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/22/remarks-president-memorial-service-victims-navy-yard-shooting

39.

Pan

Kosicki

(1993). Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse. Political Communication, 10, 55-75. doi:10.1080/10584609.1993.9962963

40.

Powell

K. A.

(2011). Framing Islam: An analysis of U.S. media coverage of terrorism since 9/11. Communication Studies, 62, 90-112. doi:10.1080/10510974.2011.533599

41.

Reese

S. D.

(2001). Framing public life: A bridging model for media research. In Reese

S. D.

Gandy

O. H. J.

Grant

A. E.

(Eds.), Framing public life (pp. 7-31). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

42.

Robertson

Rivera

(2009, November 7). Long lines and boredom, then “fish in the barrel.” The New York Times, p. A1.

43.

Ryan

(1991). Prime time activism: Media strategies for grassroots organizing. Boston, MA: South End.

44.

Said

E. W.

(1978). Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

45.

Said

E. W.

(1981). Covering Islam: How the media and the experts determine how we see the rest of the world. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

46.

Schiffer

(2011). Demonizing Islam before and after 9/11: Anti-Islamic spin—An important factor in pro-war PR? Global Media and Communication, 7(3), 211-214. doi:10.1177/1742766511427491

47.

Schmid

A. P.

Jongman

A. J.

(1988). Political terrorism: A new guide to actors, authors, concepts, data bases, theories and literature (Rev. ed.). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North Holland Publishing Company.

48.

Shadid

van Koningsveld

P. S.

(2002). The negative image of Islam and Muslims in the West: Causes and solutions. In Shadid

van Koningsveld

P. S.

(Eds.), Religious freedom and the neutrality of the state: The position of Islam in the European Union (pp. 174-196). Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.

49.

Shahin

(2015). News framing as identity performance: Religion versus race in the American-Muslim press. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 39, 338-356. doi:10.1177/0196859915575740

50.

Shane

Dao

(2009, November 15). Tangle of clues about suspect at Fort Hood. The New York Times, p. A1.

51.

Shane

Johnston

(2009, November 12). Accused gunman’s exchanges with cleric raised questions, not alarms. The New York Times, p. A24.

52.

Shear

Schmidt

(2013, September 17). 12 shot to death by lone gunman at a naval base. The New York Times, p. A1.

53.

Szpunar

P. M.

(2013). The horror at Fort Hood: Disseminating American exceptionalism. Media, Culture & Society, 35, 182-198. doi:10.1177/0163443712468607

54.

Williamson

Khiabany

(2011). State, culture and anti-Muslim racism. Global Media and Communication, 7, 175-179. doi:10.1177/1742766511427436

55.

Winkler

(2007). Parallels in preemptive war rhetoric: Reagan on Libya; Bush 43 on Iraq. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 10, 303-334. doi:10.1353/rap.2007.0042

Framing Terror

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References