When the WANE-15 News app alerted about a MASS SHOOTING Saturday night, the Maven quickly recalled the carnage at Indianapolis' Fed Ex facility recently where a single gunman killed 8 people.
As more details emerged from Saturday night's shooting, an innocent woman, sleeping in her apartment had died by a stray bullet, and 4 others were injured due to what appeared to be a parking lot gunfight at the Villages of Hanna/Eden Green apartments.
While the death of anyone is tragic, one wonders why WANE-15 chose to call the tragedy a MASS SHOOTING?
For the record, no other Fort Wayne media outlet called Saturday's loss of life a MASS SHOOTING. WPTA ABC21 and their red-headed stepchild Fort Wayne's NBC characterized the event as a GUN FIGHT. WOWO 1190 radio and the Journal-Gazette merely labeled it a SHOOTING.
The Maven wonders why WANE-15 has suddenly taken to sensationalizing local tragedies, most recently explicitly describing a murdered toddler's injuries with the words "heart ripped in half". Is this a directive from Media Giant Nextar (WANE-15's owner) or just an effort to gain more ratings and increase profits by emotionalizing and event that takes a life? We may never know.
As for the term MASS SHOOTING, there appears to be no quantifiable definition.
Following the MASS SHOOTING at the Indy Fed Ex facility, Indy's WTHR 13 published and excellent story attempting to explain the use of the term.
"Rand Company research found a common approach has been to set a casualty threshold of "four fatalities by firearm, excluding the offender or offenders." Research can rely on fatality data captured in administrative reports and, frequently, media."
So, absent a well-defined definition of MASS SHOOTING, the Rand research puts it best:
"A gray area arises when media, researchers, academics and law enforcement agencies use different definitions of mass shootings for their separate purposes."
In WANE-15's case, Saturday night's tragedy is a MASS SHOOTING, because it serves WANE-15's purposes.
While the death of anyone is tragic, one wonders why WANE-15 chose to call the tragedy a MASS SHOOTING?
For the record, no other Fort Wayne media outlet called Saturday's loss of life a MASS SHOOTING. WPTA ABC21 and their red-headed stepchild Fort Wayne's NBC characterized the event as a GUN FIGHT. WOWO 1190 radio and the Journal-Gazette merely labeled it a SHOOTING.
The Maven wonders why WANE-15 has suddenly taken to sensationalizing local tragedies, most recently explicitly describing a murdered toddler's injuries with the words "heart ripped in half". Is this a directive from Media Giant Nextar (WANE-15's owner) or just an effort to gain more ratings and increase profits by emotionalizing and event that takes a life? We may never know.
As for the term MASS SHOOTING, there appears to be no quantifiable definition.
Following the MASS SHOOTING at the Indy Fed Ex facility, Indy's WTHR 13 published and excellent story attempting to explain the use of the term.
"Rand Company research found a common approach has been to set a casualty threshold of "four fatalities by firearm, excluding the offender or offenders." Research can rely on fatality data captured in administrative reports and, frequently, media."
So, absent a well-defined definition of MASS SHOOTING, the Rand research puts it best:
"A gray area arises when media, researchers, academics and law enforcement agencies use different definitions of mass shootings for their separate purposes."
In WANE-15's case, Saturday night's tragedy is a MASS SHOOTING, because it serves WANE-15's purposes.
Find the WTHR 13 story here:
