No More Thoughts and Prayers: How the Media and Public Influence Policy After a School Shooting

Abstract

Despite the existence of an established literature on agenda-setting and the influence of media on policy development, the application of these concepts to school shootings is understudied in political science. Specifically, I examine the process of agenda-setting following mass school shootings to assess how media agendas and public agendas affect policymaking on school security and gun policy. Primarily drawing on qualitative methods I make several key findings. First, school security is a more salient issue than gun policy throughout the agenda-setting process in all three cases. Second, federal gun control legislation almost never results from these shootings, despite the level of salience detected through a study of the dominant media, public, and policy agendas. Third, while several cases of significant federal school security policy enactment in response to school shootings are identified, the clear trend since 1999 has been one of decentralization and shifting responsibility to the states. Fourth, the mutually dependable relationship between technology and the media played a central role in the determination and conveyance of public responses to school shootings in each case. Finally, an important nominal shift in public attitudes towards mass shootings has occurred since Columbine, best exemplified by an increase in activist responses.