Creating a Climate of Fear: The Case of Las Vegas

Introduction

This chapter focuses on news media coverage relating to the 2017 Las Vegas incident, chosen as the main case study for this book. Feature articles, letters to the editor, images and videos are analyzed to explore how this incident is portrayed. Examined are the ways this portrayal could affect understandings of mass shootings more generally. Mirroring Schildkraut’s (2014) study, news media analyses indicate that the incident is categorized based on death toll and is also compared to other incidents; this serves to portray the idea of mass shootings as a trend. The news media’s focus on death toll has some possible implications for copycat attacks (Coleman, 2004; Lankford & Madfis, 2017; Lankford & Tomek, 2017; Towers, 2015). The media also continues the story by focusing on other frames pertaining to the incident (Callaghan & Schnell, 2005; Delli Carpini 2005). Additionally, there is a prominent theme around whether the Las Vegas incident should be defined as “terrorism,” referring to acts of ideological violence against a particular person, group or institution (Meloy, 2016).

Whilst the previous chapter showed how rare mass shootings are within the wider spectrum of gun violence, there is still the potential for them to generate high levels of fear due to an overestimation of risk. The risk perceptions associated with a threat are more likely to be distorted when they relate to incidents that are salient, unexpected and shocking (Slovic, 1987; Sunstein, 2005). This chapter documents that the news media coverage of Las Vegas contributes to this via several techniques: portraying mass shootings as an ongoing trend; normalizing the phenomenon to the extent that it appears inevitable another attack will occur in future; documenting what it was like to be victimized by the Las Vegas incident with descriptions from eyewitnesses and visualizations of the attack and its aftermath. The argument is advanced that these themes create a perception that these incidents are continuous and inevitable, which serves to make individuals feel that they are at greater risk of being victimized (Alheide, 2002; Furedi, 1997; Garland, 2001) than is actually the case.

The chapter also explores how the news media coverage of Las Vegas feeds into a climate of fear (Altheide 1997, 2002; Furedi 1997, 2006, 2007; Glassner 1999, 2004) and “fear of crime” (Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987; Gabriel & Greve, 2003; Lee, 2007) pertaining to mass shootings. Results from opinion polls suggest there is fear amongst the public about the potential of becoming victimized in a future mass shooting attack. It is also found that news media coverage of the Las Vegas incident contributes to a wider climate of fear around mass shootings in which feelings of fear and anxiety percolate throughout society (Altheide 1997, 2002; Furedi 1997, 2006, 2007; Glassner 1999, 2004).