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Umpqua CC Shooting Media Analysis


I analyzed the Umpqua Community College shooting that happened on October 1, 2015. This is a fairly recent event that was very tragic and very unexpected in such a small town. I analyzed 15 news stories and they all somewhat told the story the same. I took news stories from national to local and also focused on political standings because that can have an effect on how the news organization tells the story.

They all began stating the shooter Chris Harper Mercer and that he killed 9 people and injured 20. They also explain that he was shot by the police and died as well. Then after this part some stories tend to go in different directions but there is all a theme linked with them. There are three different major trends that the news stories focus on the first is the presidents view, the students view, and the police view. Ten of the 15 stories included quotes from President Obama and his remarks towards the shooting. Eight of the 15 stories included quotes or remarks from the sheriff or police department. Seven of the 15 stories included remarks or quotes from the students. Above is a video that I thought was the best video I could find about this shooting. It has quotes from the dispatcher during call and quotes from the students explaining what happened.

As you can see these three different sources were common among all the stories. Some stories had all three perspectives and some only had one outlet. All of the stories focus on the panic and terror of the event and the after math. The key news frame that dominates the coverage of this event would be the presidents response to the issue. This is very serious because everyone is curious how he was going to respond to the event. People were also looking very closing and the people running for president next year and getting their point of view on the issue because mass shootings are becoming a “normal” thing that happens quite often in the United States. This was also such a big deal because it happened at such a small school and in such a small town. When you think of these things happening you say, “oh that wont ever happen to me,” but this event really made me open my eyes are realize that the University of Idaho is a lot bigger than that school and it could easily happen here.

There are some differences between how some news outlets cover the event compared to others. It really shows the opinion of the news organizations opinion about gun control. Some outlets were very strong about pushing gun control and why we need too. Almost over exaggerating the issue. Some organizations focused more on the idea of Mercer having mental problems and not necessarily focused on the gun violence. One that was also common in the stories was the talk of all the school shootings since Sandy Hook or for the year of 2015. I have seen many statistics talking about this and how there has been record high numbers of shootings in the United States this year. I think the differences within these articles is just the beliefs of the people writing the stories. If the person is for gun control then they would talk a lot about the gun violence and how it is becoming a huge issue but a news outlet more like Fox News talk less about gun control and more so the issue people and becoming mentally ill.

The stories that focused on President Obamas speech and opinion included many quotes from his press conference after the shooting. This is from Politcal Gates and this shows a good explanation of what President Obama Said.

President Obama also struck out at claims that the people who commit such horrific mass murders do so because of mental illness. He said that "We are not the only country on earth that has people with mental illnesses" but "we are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months."It's the number of guns that are the cause. That and how easy it is for American people to get hold of them. And also that of the existence of an association, the NRA, which encourages more and more guns and less and less regulations regarding their use and who can own them.

Many of the stories that talked about President Obama’s response included these quotes. This is a great explanation about the issue and how the number of guns is the problem.

Other stories talked about the Sheriff’s perspective. The Sheriff John Hanlin had quotes in all the stories that included the police remarks. He was the main police officer in charge of covering this shooting. Most comments about the shooter that Hanlin said were like below. This was from an article by abcnews.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin Thursday night said that police continued to investigate the shooter's identity, but "you will never hear me mention his name." "I will not name the shooter," Hanlin said. "I will not give him the credit he sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act."

As you can see Hanlin is not happy with this incident. Many stories said how Hanlin has been a strong activist in fighting for gun control laws.

In the stories with the students they were very emotional. Many quotes were made by witnesses and students of what happened. The students in the quotes were very descriptive and gave great detail of how the issue went down. This is a quote from a teacher explaining the shooting. This was published in a New York Times article.

“He was just out there, hanging outside the door,” Ms. Welding said of the gunman, “and she slumped over, and I knew something wasn’t right. And they’re like, ‘She got shot, she got shot.’ And everyone is panicking.”

A friend of the injured woman dragged the woman into the room and began administering CPR, Ms. Welding said. Someone clicked the door shut. Someone shut off the lights, and the students huddled in the corner, blocking themselves with desks and backpacks. “I heard more shooting,” she said. “It was horrific.”

“My whole body was shaking, a chill was going down my spine. We called 911,” said Ms. Welding. “I was on the phone with my mom pretty much the entire time. I knew this could have been the last time I talked to her.”

I found these quotes very powerful in explaining the shooting and how horrible it must have been to be there.

To look at the coverage as a whole I am very surprised I did not see more articles talking about how the shooter was killing only Christians. The man would walk into rooms and tell people to stand up if they are Christians and that is who he would shoot. No articles went into depth about this and I was hoping more did. No one really knew the real reason he did this but this is one thing that we can link it to. I did not see much talk about this is articles.

Another thing that I thought was very interesting in the reporting is not many articles mentioned that UCC was an open carry campus. I think this would be a thing that the gun control people would jump all over. It would be something that they could use against people who are for guns. It is kind of scary that it was an open carry campus and there was a shooting. I wish more articles would have mentioned this issue. It would have made the articles much more controversial and more interesting to see the viewpoints on the issue.

These articles bring up the points mentioned when we talked about Sandy Hook. We analyzed Fymers and he claimed that there are more psychological issues in youths. It goes into detail about how it is related to the object of fear and how the youths culture and upbringing effect them so much. I totally agree with Fymer and I think it makes a good point and this is a perfect example of what he is talking about. It all comes down to parenting. I found it very interesting the video of his dad saying that he was just as shocked as every one else was. That he would not expect this from his son. This shows that it was a mental illness or his up brining that really influenced this to happen. It is very sad it happened and I think people need to really focus on how they raise their children and how they make them view guns and how gun violence is bad.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading all these articles and analyzing news coverage. It was fun to look at it in more of a analytical point of view than just reading the articles. I think the news did a good job covering the shooting but as I mentioned above I wish they would have went into more detail about it being an open carry campus and that he was seeking out religious people. This was a great end to the class and I really enjoyed this class and learning more about it.

List of Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/live/shooting-at-umpqua-community-college/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reports-shooting-umpqua-community-college-oregon_560d7658e4b0af3706dfdcd1

http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2015/10/mass-shooting-in-roseburg-oregon-on.html

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/10/horror_in_roseburg_10_minutes.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/01/oregon-umpqua-community-college-shooting

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/umpqua-community-college-shooting-roseburg-oregon/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/01/us/oregon-college-shooting/index.html

http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/mass-shooting-at-oregon-community-college/273508

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/breakingnews/shooter-who-killed-9-wounded-7-at-oregon-college-identified/ar-AAf0MOh

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/10/01/officials-active-shooter-oregon-college/73153610/

http://time.com/4058269/oregon-shooting-community-college/

http://www.opb.org/news/article/active-shooter-at-umpqua-community-college/

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/01/oregon-cops-respond-to-report-shooter-at-community-college/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/02/oregon-shooter-said-to-have-singled-out-christians-for-killing-in-horrific-act-of-cowardice/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/multiple-casualties-shooting-reported-college-oregon/story?id=34181664


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