Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2019
Capstone Advisor
Emily Thorson
Honors Reader
Shana Gadarian
Capstone Major
Political Science
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Keywords
media coverage, school shootings, agenda-setting, indexing theory, episodic and thematic framing
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
American Politics
Abstract
This study examines how The New York Times covered the Newtown, Connecticut and Parkland, Florida school shootings, with specific attention to whose voices are heard and how media attention changes over time. A content analysis of 576 New York Times articles found that more articles were published on the Newtown shooting than on the Parkland shooting. In the first six months of coverage for both shootings, politicians were quoted more often than victims or parents, and stories largely discussed the shooting using a thematic frame; focusing on the issue of gun control. The evidence also suggests that activist-planned events helped to increase media coverage. These findings are important because they show that when it comes to the issue of school shootings, readers of The New York Times will largely see these events through the lens of the political debates surrounding gun control, rather than via the voices and opinions of parents and victims of either shooting.
Recommended Citation
Finman, Lindsay Jensen, "What’s to Blame and Whose Voices are Heard: How The New York Times Covers School Shootings" (2019). Honors Capstone Projects - All. 1114.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1114
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Comments
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