Ethical Implications of Communicating Risk in the Media: A Heuristic for Reporting on Crisis Events with a Focus on Mass School Shootings

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dc.contributor.advisorEyman, Douglas
dc.creatorYuckenberg, Ashley K.
dc.date.accessioned2022-08-03T20:18:33Z
dc.date.available2022-08-03T20:18:33Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation looks at the idea of “if it bleeds it leads” (Sontag, 2003, p.18), an expression that implies all news concerns violence, and applies the ethics of care to the rhetoric used in the coverage of crisis events, with a particular focus on mass school shootings. Using frame analysis I analyzed the coverage provided to the public in the two weeks after the Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Parkland school shootings to create a heuristic to limit undue trauma to victims and the general audience during the coverage of crisis events. As shown by the Center for Disease Control, contagion events (or copycat events) can be limited by following reporting guidelines that focus media coverage on the victims of the event and away from the perpetrator. This heuristic is meant to be used in the coverage of crisis events to work toward what Aristotle calls a hexis (Aristotle, 1999), or habit, of honest rhetoric, and create awareness of the repercussions of some of the media’s communication methods.
dc.format.extent129 pages
dc.format.mediumDissertation
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1920/12945
dc.language.isoen
dc.subject.keywordsJournalism
dc.subject.keywordsEthics
dc.subject.keywordsCommunication
dc.subject.keywordsCrisis Communication
dc.subject.keywordsEthics
dc.subject.keywordsMass Shooting
dc.subject.keywordsMedia
dc.titleEthical Implications of Communicating Risk in the Media: A Heuristic for Reporting on Crisis Events with a Focus on Mass School Shootings
dc.typeDissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineWriting and Rhetoric
thesis.degree.grantorGeorge Mason University
thesis.degree.levelPh.D.
thesis.degree.namePh.D. in Writing and Rhetoric

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