Sun-News report

SILVER CITY - Western New Mexico University professor Jennifer Johnston, who studies the relationship between news coverage and mass shootings, addressed the Federal Commission on school safety in Washington, D.C., this summer.

Johnston had the ears of U.S. Education Secretary and Commission Chair Betsy DeVos, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen while briefing the commission on her research, which points to a possible three-fold decrease in mass shootings if the media did not name shooters.

“From 1950s to 2000, there were only about two incidents per year. Last year was a record of 30 mass shootings,” Johnston said. “In an examination of the usual suspects and potential causes of mass shootings, media contagion is the one potential cause that has a corresponding meteoric rise.”

Eleven studies, including Johnston’s, have evaluated whether media contagion is real, and all have found a contagion effect. “For one incident, there’s a 22 increased chance of another occurring shortly. When you get to three or four incidents, there’s a 100 percent chance that we will have a fifth school shooting in 30 days,” she said.

Johnston cautioned the commission against treating mass shootings like single homicides. “Mass shootings are a different animal. It’s against type in terms of what may be triggering it,” she said.

Mass shooters often share three main traits, according to Johnston’s research. “They tend to be depressed to the point of being suicidal. They tend to be socially isolated or have a recent social connection loss. And they tend to be narcissistic but specifically fame-seeking,” she said.

The media assures mass shooters fame, Johnston told the commission. “(In media coverage following mass shootings,) the shooter was pictured 16 times more than any victim. Their images were also larger in size,” she said.

Concluding her presentation, Johnston recommended the commission ask the media to immediately adopt the Don’t Name Them campaign. She also offered her help if the Center for Disease Control convenes a working group on the topic of media contagion, like the 1984 group that recommended a media policy to prevent suicide contagion.

A recording of Johnston’s presentation at “The Ecology of Schools: Fostering a Cultural of Human Flourishing and Developing Character” on Thursday, June 21, 2018, is available online at tinyurl.com/WNMUinDC.