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Purpose – The Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings have presented new challenges in how the media covers school shootings. These events have transformed Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Seung-Hui Cho not only from disgruntled youth to school killers, but also into actors, writers, and directors of their own narrative.

Methodology/approach – This article focuses on the role of the masculine identity and underlying messages in the communicative process of the shooters. Further examination looks at what particular messages the shooters are communicating through the media. This includes an analysis into their journals, internet postings, and videos that were left behind as archives of the performative scripts. Finally, reflection is presented in terms of which parts of the shooters’ messages are or are not communicated and why.

Findings – This article considers the differences in the Columbine and Virginia Tech cases in terms of who is controlling the information that gets released to the public. In the case of Columbine, information was or was not released by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, whereas in the case of Virginia Tech, nearly all decisions regarding material release was made by the media (particularly NBC News).

Originality/value of paper – This article applies Muschert and Ragnedda's (2010) examination of cultural scripts to two benchmark cases, examining the mediatization of the shooters’ own words.

On 20 April 1999, at Columbine High School in Colorado, two students, Eric Harris (aged 18) and Dylan Klebold (17), embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and one teacher. The pair then committed suicide. The event provoked vigorous debate around topics such as the gun culture, bullying, violent video games, goth culture and teenage use of the internet and anti‐depressants. In nearby Boulder is the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, part of the University of Colorado. Del Elliott, a world‐renowned criminologist and sociologist, has been director there since 1993. Columbine was the catalyst for Del and a team of researchers, policy‐makers and practitioners to develop the Blueprints for Violence Prevention database of evidence‐based programmes. On 2 July 2009, Del gave the annual Social Research Unit, Dartington, lecture at the Commonwealth Club in London. This article is based on his talk.

Purpose – This chapter explores the problem of school shootings as a source of anxiety and fear in schools. Such fear has generated calls for security in schools and has been a catalyst for the development and deployment of antiviolence policies in schools.

Methodology/approach – The chapter begins by examining the development of the Columbine Effect, which is a set of emotions surrounding youth social problems, particularly violence in schools. This Columbine Effect is then explored in relation to its role in the development of policies to mitigate the problem of school violence. These purposes are linked using a multilevel typology of school violence and their sources, created by Henry (2009).

Findings – The chapter explores the levels of violence addressed by six antiviolence policies: crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), zero tolerance, anti-bullying programming, emergency management planning, peer mediation, and school climate programming. The analysis indicates the level(s) of violence each type of policy is designed to address and identifies research evidence regarding the efficacy of each policy. The analysis also focuses on the unintended consequences of school antiviolence policies, especially those which reduce violence on one or more levels, while exacerbating the problem on other levels.

Research limitations/implications – The analytical approach was selective, rather than exhaustive. Nonetheless, the analysis has suggested a number of ironies concerning the unintended consequences of antiviolence programming in schools. This suggests the need for broader analysis in this area.

Practical implications – The analysis identifies a number of detrimental effects that have resulted from school violence policy initiatives ranging from the socialization of youth toward a society of control and authority. In addition, the chapter helps to clarify the (often negative) effects of hype about violence in schools.

Originality/value of chapter – Although not often connected, this chapter explores the intersection between the discourse of school violence (typically, a social problems framing concern) and the development of school antiviolence policies (typically, an applied social scientific concern).

Purpose – In the chapter, journalistic work ethics on the scene during school shootings and journalists’ psychological stress reactions after such work is studied.

Approach – Findings are based on several qualitative studies carried out separately at different time periods, spanning over a decade. Included cases are one from the United States, Columbine (1999), and two from Finland, Jokela (2007) and Kauhajoki (2008). Similarities and differences between cases are pinpointed, and general conclusions are drawn.

Findings – Results show that while technical equipment and publication platforms have developed between cases, journalists’ ethical issues, response to public criticism, and patterns of postcrisis reactions remain similar.

Practical implications – As implications in the area of journalism ethics and stress reactions, the authors conclude that work in crises will be the rule rather than the exception during a journalist's career. Ethical considerations and individual response patterns to an event interact in complex ways. Personal preparation and knowledge in the area of ethics are of crucial importance for being able to function professionally during assignments.

Social implications – Personal knowledge regarding journalism ethics and psychological stress are of importance, since individual mistakes when informing about a crisis can have long-lasting societal effects.

Value of chapter – In the chapter, the authors underline the need to develop a personal understanding of typical crisis-related journalistic work strategies (autopilot/hyper mode), ethical boundaries, and possible stress reactions, for enabling an adequate work approach during assignments. Also, a number of possible predictors for emotional distress in journalists during crisis-related assignments are proposed.

Purpose – This chapter is an exploration of how the Canadian media characterize the entire population of Canadian school shootings over a 25-year time period.

Methodology/approach – This chapter uses frame analysis to examine how the media characterize and frame Canadian school shootings within The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper.

Findings – This chapter demonstrates that the Canadian media utilize a small number of frames consistently over the 25-year period of analysis. Instead of changing their frame use within events over time, Canadian school shootings receive their own “frame emphasis,” reflecting the unique characteristics of each particular shooting. Additionally, the media utilize “exemplars,” or references to past North American school shootings, that serve as rhetorical anchors for future discussion of shooting events as they occur.

Research limitations/implications – As only one Canadian newspaper was utilized, this chapter may not be reflective of all Canadian news media.

Social implications – This chapter demonstrates the need to explore entire populations of school shootings in order to understand media frame use within and across events over time. It also demonstrates the need for international comparisons of school shootings, as the media utilize international exemplars to demonstrate links between school shooting events.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter is unique in that it examines the entire population of Canadian school shootings to date (n=27), and it is the first to undertake a frame analysis of exclusively Canadian shootings.

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.

I began my research at two suburban high schools in the spring of 2000, shortly after the one-year “anniversary” of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado. On April 20, 1999, Dylan Kelbold and Eric Harris entered their school and killed 10 classmates and 1 teacher, wounded 23 others, and then took their own lives in the library. It was the worst mass murder ever to take place on school grounds in the United States. I was particularly interested in looking at suburban schools during this time period because statistics showed juvenile crime, and in particular violence within the school systems, was on the decline, yet the perception of school violence seemed unrelated to these statistics (Brooks, Schiraldi, & Ziegenberg, 2000; Cook, 2000; Glassner, 1999). Following the widespread national attention given to the Columbine shootings,¹ public polls showed 71% of Americans believed a school shooting was likely to happen in their community (Brooks et al., 2000). A month after the Columbine shootings, a Gallup Poll found 52% of parents still feared for their children's safety at school (Brooks et al., 2000). I was interested in learning how this perception of violence and fear shaped the everyday lives of kids going to schools throughout the United States. I wanted to know how schools dealt with issues of violence and safety at the local level, and in particular, how discipline and punishment was thought about, practiced, and negotiated within public-school settings.

Purpose – This chapter examines the role of the media, guns, and violence in the social construction of masculinity in today's mediatized American culture.

Methodology – The chapter draws on critical theory and cultural studies to address crises of masculinity and school shootings. It applies and further develops Guy Debord's (1970) theory on spectacle in the contexts of contemporary violent media spectacles.

Findings – In the chapter it is argued that school shooters, and other indiscriminate gun killers, share male rage and attempts to resolve crises of masculinity through violent behavior; exhibit a fetishism of guns or weapons; and resolve their crises through violence orchestrated as a media spectacle. This demands growing awareness of mediatization of American gun culture, and calls for a need for more developed understanding of media pedagogy as a means to create cultural skills of media literacy, as well as arguing for more rational gun control and mental health care.

Originality/value of paper – The chapter contributes to the contemporary debate on mediatization of violence by discussing it within critical theory and cultural studies. The theoretical framework is applied to analysis of a range of different empirical cases ranging from school shootings to the Colorado movie theater massacre at the first night of the latest Batman movie in the summer of 2012.

Purpose: The study explores how educators use mass media to sensemake their experiences in relation to school shootings.

Methodology/approach: The present chapter uses content analysis to analyze educator tweets and results from an anonymous online survey.

Findings: Twitter is used by educators in the aftermath of school shootings to sensemake the impact these events have on teaching and learning outcomes. Moreover, educators turn to Twitter to debate larger issues related to gun control and arming teachers. Collectively, educators remain committed to their institutions and students; however, they may struggle to meet the ever-changing demands of what it means to be a teacher in the post-Columbine educational landscape.

Research limitations: While providing a starting point for understanding how educators sensemake their experiences with mass media, there are limitations. The sample size was limited to 55 tweets and 40 survey respondents. Furthermore, researcher bias is a concern. Both researchers work in higher education and have experienced the emotional “heaviness” that comes with discussions of school shootings.

Originality/value: This study provides insights into how educators use mass media to sensemake school shootings as both content producer and consumer. Findings indicate that through the identification of patterns within educators’ sensemaking processes, educational institutions can develop better systems for processing the effect of gun violence on the teaching experience and within the classroom.

Purpose – This study examines perpetrators and their fans media participation for the purpose of investigating whether new media produce school shootings anew.

Method – We first analyze the narrative structure of eight school shooters’ 75 self-produced videos (1999–2011), then conduct thematic and content analysis of this material. Then, based upon a three-year ethnographic investigation of a subculture on YouTube (2007–2010), from which a sample of 81 users, 142 videos, and screenshots of natural conversation was taken, we analyze the style and ritual practices, fan attachment, and online regulation of the subculture.

Findings – The mirroring of the school shooters’ videos and their fans’ media practices highlights a trait of contemporary society: a need for distinction and intrinsic individuality directly linked to a modern era in which autonomy and self-production have become well-praised norms, and media a support for individuation.

Social implications – We observe some of the pitfalls of contemporary social injunctions and how the media interplay into this dynamic. This research also emphasizes the role of regulation in an online subculture: opposition encountered tends to contribute to the individualization of positions rather than the reproduction of violence.

Value of paper – This study provides a starting-point for future research in visual communication and online fan-based subcultures related to contemporary forms of violence.