School Shootings Online Subculture

Title - Global Online Subculture Surrounding School Shootings

Author - Jenni Raitanen and Atte Oksanen

Journal - American Behavior Scientist 

Published - January 2018

Synopsis - This study is grounded in extensive online ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with 22 people who expressed a deep interest in school shootings. Such people form a global online subculture; they share common interests and find the same cultural objects important. Media accounts of school shootings have fueled this subculture; its members participate in the re-creation and circulation of online media content and give new meanings to that content. We found that people deeply interested in school shootings do not form a homogenous group, and they are divided into four subgroups within the subculture based on members’ focus and interest: researchers, fan girls, Columbiners, and copycats. Out of these, copycats are the only subgroup explicitly interested in replicating the acts, although subgroup membership can overlap, and members can move from one subgroup to another. Beyond copycats, other subgroups also participate in giving perpetrators fame and circulate reasons for the shootings. These accounts may influence future perpetrators.