Terrorizing the Masses: Identity, Mass Shootings, and the Media Construction of "Terror"�

Abstract

This dissertation examines the history, policy definitions and context of both terrorism and mass shootings in the United States. Using three high-profile mass shootings on American military bases as case studies, this project considers the role of news media in constructing the events (and the shooters) in markedly different ways. Specifically, this project examines the ways in which both events and shooters are framed in mainstream American broadcast media, analyzing media coverage through the lens of two pivotal shifts in public understanding of tragedies that took place around the turn of the 21st century-the 1999 Columbine shooting (which almost singlehandedly coined the phrase "mass shooting"� and produced enduring tropes in media coverage), and the September 11, 2001 attacks, which permanently and drastically refigured the image of "terror"� in the American imagination.