News Framing of School Shootings by McCluskey Michael;

Author:McCluskey, Michael;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

Chapter 7

Other Individual-Level Problem Definitions

The remaining six problem definitions (Lawrence, 2001) broadly fit into individual-level and societal-level potential causes and solutions. Muschert (2007) categorized potential causes and solutions at either the individual-level (including mental illness, access to guns and family neglect) and at social, cultural and community contexts (including schools and a culture of violence). Taking into account Muschert’s categorization, this book places three of the remaining problem definitions into the individual level (mental health, parents/adults and drugs/alcohol) and the other three into the societal level (schools, criminal justice and teen life). These categorizations are imperfect, as each problem definition has elements that fit as both individual and societal/cultural problems. For instance, mental health includes individual responsibilities (such as seeking and following through on treatment) and societal roles (public policy in dealing with mental illness). Teen life includes individual behavior (such as tolerance for others) and societal practices (policies to prevent or limit bullying).

The three individual-level problem definitions of mental health, parents/adults and drugs/alcohol are covered in this chapter. The three societal-level problem definitions are outlined in chapter 8.

FRAMES AND SOURCES

The problem definitions provide perspective on the latest school shooting, focusing on causes and potential solutions. As with the problem definitions evaluated in previous chapters, analysis is focused on the dominant frames and sources within problem definitions identified as a major focus within a story. The explanations are similar – news content highlights specific attributes (the framing), sources present their own views, affecting story frames, and story frames potentially influence public opinion and public policy.

Source usage is a critical element of frame building – the construction of and choices of which attributes to emphasize within a story – along with a key insight into political discourse on that topic. Sources are an external-level element of the frame-building process (covered more thoroughly in chapter 2), with journalists favoring sources with expertise or authority on the topic. Especially prominent in the news are official sources (Brown, Bybee, Weaden & Straughan, 1987; Lacy & Matusik, 1983), including those connected to government (Cooper & Soley, 1990; Gans, 1979; Reese & Buckalew, 1995; Sigal, 1973) or in other positions of power or influence.

METHOD

On each problem definition, data were drawn from articles in which that problem definition was a major focus of the story. The source of the data and study period are identical to those covered in previous chapters. Sources and what the sources said, each constituting a paragraph or less, about the relevant problem definition were sorted for analysis. For source, the selection criteria was similar to the other problem definitions – to identify “all voices attached to a tone related to the problem definition. This includes individuals, organizations and businesses.” Sources categories were substantially similar to the other problem definitions. Relevant text passages were sorted and analyzed through cluster analysis to arrive at the emergent frames within each problem definition.

Although intercoder reliability testing was not conducted for these six problem definitions, the substantial similarity of the source categories suggests that reliability had already been demonstrated.

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