Media and Mass Shootings: Field Theory in CNN News Coverage of the Columbine High School and Parkland High School Mass Shootings

Abstract

Through discourse analysis, this article seeks to compare the cable news coverage of the Columbine High School shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (n = 81) in the first two days of coverage using field theory, with CNN broadcast transcripts as the unit of analysis. The research showed that the shooter was the dominant shaping force in the CNN discourse in both school shooting events.

Keywords

field theory mass shootings school shootings cable news electronic news

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