Adversaries Over Tragedy: The Influence of Role Performance and Framing on Nonverbal Neutrality in School Shooting Coverage

• In Event: News Division - Top Paper Presentations

Abstract

The visual presentation of crisis events through media coverage is an important aspect of how cultural meaning and understanding of those crises are developed. The decisions made by communicators about how issues are framed become critical to the presentation of information, and over time, can develop into patterns and standards of news delivery. Previous studies of the relative neutrality of visual frames of crises have primarily been done from a linguistic perspective. This study seeks to expand current understandings of neutrality of journalistic presentations of crisis by considering their nonverbal communication and the variability of that nonverbal behavior. The study utilizes Basic Emotions Theory (BET) (Ekman, 1984; 1999) and Behavioral Ecology View of Facial Displays (BECV) (Fridlund, 2002) from the study of nonverbal communication, as well as concepts from social typifications and routines (Berkowitz, 1992; Tuchman, 1972; McKinney, 1969), and the stages of crisis coverage theory (Graber, 2002). Variability of nonverbal behavior of broadcast journalists and influences on that behavior will be examined through a content analysis of network coverage of the six deadliest school shootings in the past 20 years. The analysis examines the factors that influence the visual frames of nonverbal neutrality at the social level through the typifications that guide journalists’ work utilizing connected BECV concepts. The researcher hopes by bridging gaps in existing literature on the norm of neutrality with nonverbal communication, the negotiations of meaning of nonverbal neutrality norms in journalism can be more clearly understood. These findings can potentially extend current theoretical understandings of crisis coverage framing patterns, roles, and routines.

Author

• Danielle F Deavours, Samford University