Publications
Terrorizing the Masses
available here
Why are some crimes identified as acts of terrorism, while others are not? How are critical terms like “terrorism” and “mass shooting” defined and understood in the 21st century? What are some of the causes of the unique American epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence? Terrorizing the Masses considers the invisible role that the media play in shaping the way we think about terrorism, gun violence, fear, and identity. This book explores media coverage of five mass shootings over a 20-year period, examining the role that race, religion, and gender play in framing some of the most high-profile crimes of American society.
This book is a useful text for courses on media ethics, crime and public policy, political science, terrorism studies, and communication studies.
Minnesota Women’s Press:
Rationalizing Fear: How Media Coverage of Violence Shapes American Culture
read article here
We tend to be bad at assessing risk — we are trained to fear strangers as kids, for example, but family members and acquaintances statistically pose a much greater threat to children in terms of abuse than “stranger danger.” Alcohol is the number one date-rape drug, but we are taught to fear sedative drugs and other less commonly used substances.
Poor and hurting: media habits and views on drugs
read article here
Perceptions of illicit drugs may relate to factors such as media coverage and demographic variables, yet little is known about the relative importance of these factors, even though perceptions of harm are strongly associated with increased use. This study explores young adults’ beliefs about illicit drugs; demographic variables, media consumption, and personal experience.
The Legacy of the White Power Movement (Book Review: Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America)
read book review here
Finding purpose in America: Be decent. Be earnest. Don’t lose your capacity for shock and sorrow.
read article here
The gleefully cruel do not own American patriotism. They don’t own the flag. The flag is mine, too. It belongs to my family, and to the families of brand-new immigrants, and to our children, who have to inherit this mess.
Guns, Culture or Mental Health? Framing Mass Shootings as a Public Health Crisis
read article here
In recent years, public health scholars and policymakers have been calling for increased research on the public health implications of gun violence. However, scientific research on this issue has been stifled by a 1996 budget rider that eliminated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) funding for gun research. In this study, we examined newspaper coverage of three mass shootings that took place over a 20-year period before and after the passage of this budget rider. We found that sources and frames provided by news media to contextualize gun violence shifted markedly over time, progressing from episodic and individual-level frames to broader thematic societal-level concerns, with increased discus- sion of mental health but limited discourse explicitly related to public health.
How Broadcast Media Discuss New Drug Epidemics: Integrating Neuroscience with Communication Studies through Textual Framing
read article here
Interdisciplinary research is being heralded as the pinnacle for success in academia and many researchers are attempting to integrate their fields. This case study describes the process of designing and implementing cross-disciplinary research, including the challenges we faced publishing a study combining the fields of mass communication and neuroscience. We will discuss this process in reference to our work examining media reporting of the Miami Zombie Attack and the “new” designer drug, bath salts. First, we will discuss how we developed the idea for our study. We will then explore the methodology used, including qualitative framing and quantitative measures, sharing how the unique skills of both researchers provided a novel framework for asking our questions. We will ultimately discuss some of the challenges we encountered throughout the course of this research and how future interdisciplinary researchers might be able to avoid them.
The Franken case is our moment of truth as progressives
read article here
“Too many are casting aspersions on Leeann Tweeden and making excuses for the senator. This is hypocrisy, and we need to respond differently.”
Framing the Danger of Designer Drugs: Mass Media, Bath Salts and the “Miami Zombie Attack”
read article here
Media reporting of drug issues has important ramifications for public opinion of drugs and drug trends. This study was conducted to examine the media coverage of a specific new subcategory of drugs, so-called ‘‘designer drugs,’’ using coverage of a highly publicized attack in Miami as a case study. Broadcast news transcripts were analyzed to both identify themes in coverage of this attack and contextualize this reporting in the clinical literature on bath salts, the drug implicated in the attack.
The Male Factor
read article PDF
One element looms large in its absence from most media accounts of the problem of gun violence — the inescapable role that gender plays in American violence.
In the wake of mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers aren’t enough
read article here
“The hashtag was trending immediately on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook after the shooting: “Pray for Oregon.” Clasped hand emoticons. Tweets of support. Memes. Online petitions abounding.
“This is tired by now; it’s maddeningly routine. And here’s the thing: Our thoughts and prayers are not enough. We can do better. We need to look hard at this atrocity — really look at it.”
Orientalism for a New Millennium: Cable News and the Specter of the “Ground Zero Mosque”
read article here
This study uses discourse analysis to examine the arc of cable news media coverage of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, a proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan that sparked widespread controversy. This article analyzes both the nature and duration of mainstream cable news coverage of the controversy and the major arguments put forth by those both supporting and opposing the center in the politically charged post-September 11 media environment.
On Ferguson, social media and racial empathy
read article here
“On the night St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough announced that Darren Wilson would not face trial, I placed myself in a social media quarantine. The avalanche of status updates, news, grief, criticism from all sides — it was too overwhelming, too frustrating.
“But by the next day it was still there, impossible to ignore.”
Newspaper Training Program Shows Gains in Social Media
read article PDF
This article reports the results of a training program developed and delivered under a state grant by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota for the news and advertising employees at the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
American Gun Culture, School Shootings and a “Frontier Mentality”: An Ideological Analysis of British Editorial Pages in the Decade After Columbine
read article here
The problem of school shootings has attracted extensive media attention, especially since the Columbine shooting, a watershed event that pushed the issue of school shootings to the forefront of media coverage. This paper examines the themes present in British editorial coverage of school shootings in the decade between April 1999, the month of the Columbine shooting, and April 2009, using ideological analysis to identify themes present in British editorial newspaper coverage. Articles were drawn from the Times of London and the Independent. Major themes that emerged were widespread disgust with a disordered and unhealthy American gun culture and firearms legislation, a focus on gratuitous and violent entertainment media, and a frustration with unethical media coverage of these tragic events.