Afterword: Media and School Shootings: A Sociological View

Abstract

School rampage shootings are acts of terrorism. As Walter Laqueur (1977) noted, “…Terrorists’ attitudes toward the media as a whole have been friendly, and with good reason. The success of a terrorist operation depends almost entirely on the amount of publicity it receives” (p. 109, emphasis added). School rampage shootings qualitatively changed after Columbine from merely realized revenge fantasies to orchestrated media events (Larkin, 2009). Laqueur noted in reference to terrorist acts that they are “propaganda by deed” (1977, p. 49). The more outrageous the act, the more “senseless” in terms of conventional interpretations of reality, the greater the body count, the larger and more intense the media feeding frenzy. Innocent victims are thus sacrificed to the perpetrators’ need to be recognized and to be taken seriously. In the wake of (Columbine shooters) Harris and Klebold's “Basement Tapes,” videotapes of their activities and fantasies, web pages, diaries, doodles, lists, and even school paper assignments, it is now incumbent on any rampage shooter to produce a manifesto, videotapes, pictures, websites, and messages in any newly invented medium to vent his anger, frustration, theory of revolution, and rationale for his act. I use the term “his” because rampage shootings are, in part, a response to a crisis in hegemonic masculinity (Kellner, 2008; Kimmel & Mahler, 2003; Larkin, 2011), which has been mentioned by several researchers in this volume.