Baeva, L. (2024). Mediatization of School Shooting (Сolumbine) in Fan Literature. Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies, 6(2), 177-204. https://doi.org/10.46539/gmd.v6i2.419
One of the most acute and poorly predicted social problems in modern educational institutionsaround the world and in Russia has become school shooting (armed mass attacks) with tragic conse-quences and a long-term subsequent media effect. Revenge, the will to power, the searchforuniversal attention: what motivates school shooters and generates a chain of subsequent tragicattacks 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.Thestudy is devoted to the study of a underexplored segment of fan-literature about school shootingand its participants, posted on the Wattpat and Ficbook media resources, from the position of identi-fying the main gender, thematic and content characteristics that contribute to maintaining interestinschool shooting, its glorification and mythologization. The characteristic of the specifics, forms andmechanisms of promoting the ideas of school shooting in the media environment is obtainedbytheexample of communities of creators and readers of fanfiction. The study was carried out usingthe methodological capabilities of modern communication theories as well as using Data-Science.Ithas been revealed that through fan literature, the topic of school shooting has largely become legal-ized, expanded its audience, and became a “gray zone”, poorly controlled from the outside.
https://doi.org/10.46539/gmd.v6i2.419
