Mediatization of School Shooting (Сolumbine) in Fan Literature

Abstract

One of the most acute and poorly predicted social problems in modern educational institutions around the world and in Russia has become school shooting (armed mass attacks) with tragic consequences and a long-term subsequent media effect. Revenge, the will to power, the search for universal attention: what motivates school shooters and generates a chain of subsequent tragic attacks in educational institutions? To a large extent, this is determined not only by internal factors (mental, behavioral characteristics), but also by external influence, including informational ones. The study is devoted to the study of a underexplored segment of fan-literature about school shooting and its participants, posted on the Wattpat and Ficbook media resources, from the position of identifying the main gender, thematic and content characteristics that contribute to maintaining interest in school shooting, its glorification and mythologization. The characteristic of the specifics, forms and mechanisms of promoting the ideas of school shooting in the media environment is obtained by the example of communities of creators and readers of fanfiction. The study was carried out using the methodological capabilities of modern communication theories as well as using Data-Science. It has been revealed that through fan literature, the topic of school shooting has largely become legalized, expanded its audience, and became a “gray zone”, poorly controlled from the outside.

Keywords

• school shooting
• columbine phenomenon
• mass armed attacks in educational institutions
• fan literature
• fan fiction
• social media
• ficbook
• wattpad
• viral effect
• mediatization
• legitimization