Abstract
An analysis of the self-narratives, self-stagings, and self-glorifications of school shooters circulated by the media, focusing on communicative and ideological elements and investigating the extent and nature of adolescent identification with perpetrators and their ideologies. Online interviews were conducted with a theoretical sample of 31 YouTube users selected to cover a range of relevance (minimum intensity of involvement was participation in online discussions) and diversity of characteristics (attitude, intensity, age, gender). The findings were analyzed by minimal/maximal case comparison. A small identification group characterized by recognition deficits in three crucial areas (family, school, peer group) felt there were strong similarities between their own psychosocial background and those of the shooters, and engaged with school shooters as a strategy of identity assertion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
YouTube was selected as the field of research because it is the world’s largest and most intensely used portal of its kind, with about 60 h of video material uploaded every minute and about four billion video views per day. Numerous media self-presentations by school shooters can be found on YouTube, including Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Sebastian Bosse, Seung-Hui Cho, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, and Matti Saari, uploaded by the perpetrators before the shooting or later by others. Numerous documentary reports and films about school shootings are also available on the site. The search term “School Shooting” returns 55,200 results on YouTube, with 12,900 videos for “Columbine” alone (as of February 11, 2012). Lindgren gives a general overview of user discussion relating to school shootings (2011), demonstrating that in comments on video clips showing images and texts from Seung-Hui Cho or Pekka-Eric Auvinen, for example, YouTube users refer above all to the issue of bullying as a possible reason.
- 2.
On the relevance of marginalization and bullying experiences as causes of school shootings see Larkin, Madfis, & Levin, and Newman in this volume.
- 3.
The term is borrowed from protest research, where Fahlenbrach uses it to identify particular social processes among participants in street demonstrations.
- 4.
While school shooters generally come from outwardly inconspicuous white middle-class families, their family relationships are often dysfunctional and characterized by emotional indifference (Fast, 2008; O’Toole, 1999). In some cases the perpetrator is loosely attached to a clique of outsiders, but this does not function adequately as a “surrogate informal recognition structure” (Sitzer, 2002) and therefore cannot protect them from feelings of hopelessness and identity threat (Böckler & Seeger, 2010; McGee & DeBernardo, 1999).
- 5.
For Heintz, imagined communities form “symbolic substitutes for real world ties that are lacking, where semantics and symbolism create a sense of togetherness that bridges all differences and allows real spatial and social distance to be forgotten. In this connection, the disseminating media and unity-generating symbols play a central role” (translated from 2003, 188–189).
- 6.
Considerations of space here preclude more detailed discussion of the details of the methodology, which is described in full elsewhere (Böckler & Seeger, 2010).
- 7.
Of course, we cannot claim that the described ideological components and feelings of group belonging are part of the motivation and self-perception of all school shooters. While the academic discourse to date assumes that there is no uniform perpetrator profile (Borum, Cornell, Modzeleski, & Jimerson, 2010), the findings described here could possibly be paradigmatic for a certain subtype existing within a phenomenon that is as a whole heterogeneous and requires closer empirical scrutiny and definition.
- 8.
Horton and Wohl also designate a media person as a persona (1956).
- 9.
In this connection, Sumiala writes of “networked communities of destruction,” which she describes as “virtual global communities held together by a social imaginary constructed around the visualization of texts of death and violence” (2011).
- 10.
- 11.
In connection with the present study, this refers to the point at which, after an exhaustive case comparison, no additional cases could be identified on YouTube that presented identifiable but hitherto unobserved facets of reception relating to the media self-presentations of school shooters. However, it must be pointed out that social interaction patterns on YouTube are not fixed, with numerous new users joining every day while others terminate their activities. Thus, this virtual community is in permanent flux, and here more than anywhere we cannot expect to identify “final and conclusive” empirical results.
- 12.
We joined YouTube and created a special user’s channel for the purpose of contacting subjects. The research process extended over a period of 18 months (06/2008 to 11/2009). In the initial pretest phase, data was collected in synchronous chat interviews. The subsequent e-mail survey used a qualitative questionnaire that allowed the adolescents to have only minimal contact with the researchers if they so wished. In some cases, however, communication extended over a period of several months by exchange of e-mails.
- 13.
Within open/communicative qualitative social research, there is a widespread tendency to tie the value of qualitative data to a personal encounter between subject and researcher (Früh, 2000). In some respects, especially with regard to central principles of qualitative social research (naturalistic and communicative inquiry) this would appear to be outdated, especially considering the expansive societal mediatization processes of past decades (that are so important for adolescents) (Baacke, Sander, & Vollbrecht, 1990; Krotz, 2007). Computer-mediated communication using structured online interviews appears to satisfy this paradigm especially well, because e-mail is one of the most internationally prevalent communication tools of the twenty-first century (van Eimeren & Frees, 2011).
- 14.
The multistage coding and analysis process of grounded theory was applied as follows (Strauss, 1994; Strauss & Corbin, 1996): open coding to conceptualize specific appropriation patterns concerning school shooters and their media legacies; axial coding to examine the situative contextual conditions (individual psychosocial and biographical constellations) of the recipients in relation to their individual appropriation patterns and develop initial reception types; and finally selective coding to continue axial coding at a higher level of abstraction. Using the key category of “identification” allowed us to differentiate and compare the identified reception types.
- 15.
It is conspicuous that, in most cases, teaching staff were not perceived as helpful or supportive, and consequently school as an institution was characterized as an unjust and threatening place.
References
Altmeyer, M. (2002, May 2). Rampage-killing: Über das Töten auf offener Bühne. Die Tageszeitung. Retrieved October 2, 2012 from http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/archiv/?dig=2002/05/02/a0266.
Baacke, D. (1996). Medienkompetenz: Die Welt als Clip? Jugendstile und Medien. In B. Schorb & H.-J. Stiehler (Eds.), Medienlust – Medienlast: Was bringt die Rezipientenforschung den Rezipienten? (pp. 193–204). Munich: KoPäd.
Baacke, D., Sander, U., & Vollbrecht, R. (1990). Lebenswelten sind Medienwelten. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Bachmair, B. (2005). Mediensozialisation im Alltag. In L. Mikos & C. Wegener (Eds.), Qualitative Medienforschung: Ein Handbuch (pp. 95–114). Konstanz: UVK.
Bampton, R., & Cowton, C. J. (2002). The e-interview. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 3(2). Retrieved October 2, 2012 from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/848/1842.
Böckler, N., & Seeger, T. (2010). Schulamokläufer: Eine Analyse medialer Täter-Eigendarstellungen und deren Aneignung durch jugendliche Rezipienten. Weinheim and Munich: Juventa.
Böckler, N., Seeger, T., & Heitmeyer, W. (2010). School shooting: A double loss of control. In W. Heitmeyer, H.-G. Haupt, A. Kirschner, & S. Malthaner (Eds.), Control of violence: Historical and international perspectives on violence in modern societies (pp. 261–294). New York: Springer.
Böckler, N., Seeger, T., & Sitzer, P. (2012). Media dynamics in school shootings: A socialization theory perspective. In G. W. Muschert & J. Sumiala (Eds.), School shootings: Mediatized violence in a global age (pp. 25–46). Bingley: Emerald.
Borum, R., Cornell, D., Modzeleski, W., & Jimerson, S. R. (2010). What can be done about school shootings? A review of the evidence. Educational Researcher, 39(1), 27–37.
Böttger, A. (1998). Gewalt und Biographie: Eine qualitative Analyse rekonstruierter Lebensgeschichten von 100 Jugendlichen. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Charlton, M., & Neumann-Braun, K. (1990). Medienrezeption und Identitätsbildung. Tübingen: Narr.
Chen, P., & Hinton, S. M. (1999). Realtime interviewing using the World Wide Web. Sociological Research Online, 4(3). Retrieved October 2, 2012 from http://www.socresonline.org.uk/4/3/chen.html.
Cohen, J. (2001). Defining identification: A theoretical look at the identification of audiences with media characters. Mass Communication & Society, 4(3), 245–264.
Dewan, S., & Santora, M. (2007, 19 April). Officials knew troubled state of killer in ’05. The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/us/19gunman.html.
Fahlenbrach, K. (2008). Protest-Räume – Medien-Räume: Zur rituellen Topologie der Straße als Protest-Raum. In S. M. Geschke (Ed.), Straße als kultureller Aktionsraum: Interdisziplinäre Betrachtungen des Straßenraums an der Schnittstelle zwischen Theorie und Praxis (pp. 98–111). Wiesbaden: VS.
Fast, J. (2008). Ceremonial violence: A psychological explanation of school shootings. New York: Overlook.
Flick, U. (2007). Qualitative Sozialforschung: Eine Einführung (new revised and expanded ed.). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Fritzsche, B. (2003). Pop-Fans: Studie einer Mädchenkultur. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Früh, D. (2000). Online-Forschung im Zeichen des Qualitativen Paradigmas: Methodologische Reflexion und empirische Erfahrungen. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 1(3). Retrieved October 2, 2012 from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0003353.
Frymer, B. (2009). The media spectacle of Columbine: Alienated youth as an object of fear. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(10), 1387–1404.
Gibbs, N., & Roche, T. (1999, December 20). The Columbine tapes. Time. Retrieved October 02, 2012 from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,992873-1,00.html.
Goffman, E. (1990). The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin. (original work published 1959).
Gomes, D. (2012). Numerous sectors attack bullying in Brazil. Global Press Institute. Retrieved October 02, 2012 from http://www.globalpressinstitute.org/global-news/americas/brazil/numerous-sectors-attack-bullying-brazil.
Havighurst, R. (1974). Developmental tasks and education (3d ed.). New York: McKay.
Heintz, B. (2003). Gemeinschaft ohne Nähe? Virtuelle Gruppen und reale Netze. In U. Thiedeke (Ed.), Virtuelle Gruppen: Charakteristika und Problemdimensionen (2d rev. and updated ed.) (pp. 188–218). Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Hoffmann, D. (2004). Zum produktiven Umgang von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit medialen Identifikationsangeboten. merz-wissenschaft, Zeitschrift für Medienpädagogik, 48(6), 7–19.
Honneth, A. (1994). Kampf um Anerkennung: Zur moralischen Grammatik sozialer Konflikte. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19, 215–229.
Houston, M. (2008). Tracking transition: Issues in asynchronous e-mail interviewing. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 9(2). Retrieved October 02, 2012 from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802116.
Hurrelmann, K. (2006). Einführung in die Sozialisationstheorie (9th ed.). Weinheim & Basel: Beltz.
Kellner, D. (2008). Guys and guns amok: Domestic terrorism and school shootings from the Oklahoma City bombings to the Virginia Tech massacre. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Keupp, H., Ahbe, T., Gmür, W., Höfer, R., Mitzscherlich, B., Kraus, W., et al. (2008). Identitätskonstruktionen: Das Patchwork der Identitäten in der Spätmoderne (4th ed.). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Kiilakoski, T., & Oksanen, A. (2011a). Soundtrack of the school shootings: Cultural script, music and male rage. Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 19(3), 247–269.
Kiilakoski, T., & Oksanen, A. (2011b). Cultural and peer influences on homicidal violence: A Finnish perspective. New Directions for Youth Development, 33(129), 31–42.
Krotz, F. (2001). Die Mediatisierung kommunikativen Handelns: Der Wandel von Alltag und sozialen Beziehungen, Kultur und Gesellschaft durch Medien. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Krotz, F. (2007). Mediatisierung: Fallstudien zum Wandel von Kommunikation. Wiesbaden: VS.
Langman, P. (2007). Pekka-Eric Auvinen online. Retrieved October 02, 2012 from http://www.schoolshooters.info/PL/Subject-Auvinen_files/Pekka-Eric%20Auvinen%20Online.pdf
Larkin, R. W. (2007). Comprehending Columbine. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Larkin, R. W. (2009). The Columbine legacy: Rampage shootings as political acts. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(9), 1309–1326.
Lindgren, S. (2011). YouTube gunmen? Mapping participatory media discourse on school shooting videos. Media, Culture & Society, 33(1), 1–14.
Mann, C., & Stewart, F. (2000). Internet communication and qualitative research: A handbook for researching online. London: Sage.
Mansel, J. (1995). Sozialisation in der Risikogesellschaft: Eine Untersuchung zu psychosozialen Belastungen Jugendlicher als Folge ihrer Bewertung gesellschaftlicher Bedrohungspotentiale. Neuwied, Kriftel, & Berlin: Luchterhand.
McGee, J. P., & DeBernardo, C. R. (1999). The classroom avenger. Forensic Examiner, 8, 1–16.
Mead, G. H. (1987). Der Mechanismus des sozialen Bewusstseins. In H. Joas (Ed.), George H. Mead: Gesammelte Aufsätze (Vol. 1, pp. 232–240). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Meyer, J. P., Migoya, D., & Osher C. N. (2007, December 12). “Your Columbine”: Gunman wrote of rejection as reason for revenge. The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7696043.
Muschert, G. W. (2007). Research in school shootings. Sociology Compass, 1(1), 60–80.
Muschert, G. W., & Larkin, R. W. (2007). The Columbine high school shootings. In S. Chermak & F. Y. Bailey (Eds.), Crimes and trials of the century (Vol. 2, pp. 253–266). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Muschert, G. W., & Ragnedda, M. (2010). Media and control of violence: Communication in school shootings. In W. Heitmeyer, H.-G. Haupt, A. Kirschner, & S. Malthaner (Eds.), Control of violence: Historical and international perspectives on violence in modern societies (pp. 345–361). New York: Springer.
Neumann-Braun, K. (2005). Strukturanalytische Rezeptionsforschung. In L. Mikos & C. Wegener (Eds.), Qualitative Medienforschung: Ein Handbuch (pp. 58–66). Konstanz: UVK.
Newman, K. S., Fox, C., Harding, D. J., Mehta, J., & Roth, W. (2004). Rampage: The social roots of school shootings. New York: Basic.
Newman, K. S., & Fox, C. (2009). Repeat tragedy: Rampage shootings in American high school and college settings 2002–2008. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(9), 1286–1308.
Northern Illinois University. (2008). Report of the February 14, 2008 Shootings at Northern Illinois University. Author. Retrieved October 02, 2012 from http://www.niu.edu/feb14report/Feb14report.pdf.
O’Toole, M. E. (1999). The school shooter: A threat assessment perspective. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Palen, L., Vieweg, S., Liu, S., & Hughes A. (2009). Crisis in a networked world: Features of computer mediated communication in the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech event. Social Science Computer Review, 27(5) (special issue on e-social science), 1–14.
Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York: Basic.
Rhein, S. (2011). Jugendliche und das internet: Soziologische Überlegungen und empirische Befunde. Zeitschrift für Jugendkriminalrecht und Jugendhilfe, 22(1), 52–58.
Robertz, F. J. (2004). School Shootings: Über die Relevanz der Phantasie für die Begehung von Mehrfachtötungen durch Jugendliche. Frankfurt am Main: Polizeiwissenschaft.
Robertz, F. J., & Wickenhäuser, R. (2007). Der Riss in der Tafel: Amoklauf und schwere Gewalt in der Schule. Heidelberg: Springer.
Rosenthal, G. (2005). Interpretative Sozialforschung: Eine Einführung. Weinheim and Munich: Juventa.
Schmidtke, A., Schaller, S., Stack, S., Lester, D., & Müller, I. (2005). Imitation of amok and amok-suicide. In J. McIntosh (Ed.), Suicide 2002: Proceedings of the 35th annual conference of the American Association of suicidology (pp. 205–209). Washington, DC: American Association of Suicidology.
Sestir, M., & Green, M. C. (2010). You are who you watch: Identification and transportation effects on temporary self-concept. Social Influence, 5, 272–288.
Sitzer, P. (2002). Jugend und Gewalt: Zur Grammatik von Missachtung und Identitätsentwicklung. Paper given at the symposium “Psychodynamik des aggressiven Verhaltens bei Kindern und Jugendlichen” at the 27th conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie in Berlin.
Strauss, A. L. (1994). Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung: Datenanalyse und Theoriebildung in der empirischen soziologischen Forschung. Munich: Fink.
Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1996). Grounded Theory: Grundlagen Qualitativer Sozialforschung. Weinheim: Beltz.
Strübing, J. (2004). Grounded Theory: Zur sozialtheoretischen und epistemologischen Fundierung des Verfahrens der empirisch begründeten Theoriebildung. Wiesbaden: VS.
Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect. Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 7, 321–326.
Sullivan, M. L., & Guerette, R. T. (2002). The copycat factor: Mental illness, guns, and the shooting incident at Heritage High School, Rockdale County, Georgia. In M. H. Moore, C. V. Petrie, A. A. Braga, & B. L. McLaughlin (Eds.), Deadly lessons: Understanding lethal school violence (pp. 25–69). Washington, DC: The National Academic Press.
Sumiala, J., & Tikka, M. (2010). “Web first” to death: The media logic of the school shootings in the era of uncertainty. Nordicom Review, 31(2), 17–29.
Sumiala, J. (2011). Circulating communities online: The case of the Kauhajoki school shooting. M/C Journal, 14(2). Retrieved October 02, 2012 from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/321.
Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. American Sociological Review, 22, 664–670.
van Eimeren, B., & Frees, B. (2011). Drei von vier Deutschen im Netz—ein Ende des digitalen Grabens in Sicht? Ergebnisse der ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie 2011. Media Perspektiven, 7–8, 334–349.
Veijalainen, J., Semenov, A., & Kyppö, J. (2010). Tracing potential school shooters in the digital sphere. Communications in Computer and Information Science, 76, 163–178.
Vogelgesang, W. (2003). Wie beeinflusst das Netz die Jugendkultur. Mainz: rlp-inform.
Wegener, C. (2008). Medien, Aneignung und Identität: „Stars” im Alltag jugendlicher Fans. Wiesbaden: VS.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Böckler, N., Seeger, T. (2013). Revolution of the Dispossessed: School Shooters and their Devotees on the Web. In: Böckler, N., Seeger, T., Sitzer, P., Heitmeyer, W. (eds) School Shootings. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5526-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5526-4_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5525-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5526-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)