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Tragedy in a Small Town
On March 24, 1998, Westside Middle School became
a victim of school violence. A small school, in a small town became
the focus of the media's attention. Jonesboro, AR is a small town
of 43,000 people, located in the Bible Belt. "These things just don't
happen in places like this" (Los Angeles Times) is a very common
phrase heard throughout the media's coverage. Pan and Kosicki suggest
the media proposes a hypothesis in their coverage of news stories.
The hypothesis in this particular frame is that as violence among youth
is increasing, small towns in the United States remain oblivious.
Numerous news stories have asked "when will America
wake up?"
The media's attention toward Jonesboro's size
is a clear frame intended to evoke an emotional response from the audience.
The frame functions as communication between the media and the public.
The media portrays Jonesboro to be a Bible Belt community that used
to be immune to the evil of a larger society. However, that evil
has seeped into this peaceful town, destroying it's innocence. America's
only choice is to respond with emotion. Every american understands
the meaning of the loss of innocence. Tragedy in a small town symbolizes
this loss. This frame mainly uses a technique called personalization.
(Liebes 50) The audience can relate to the media's portrayal of the situation,
which evokes the proper emotions. Liebes also suggests a framing
technique called sanitizing. This is also a way of communicating
the message to the audience in order to produce a response. However
it is based on leaving out gory details of the situation. For Jonesboro,
the media did not leave much of anything out. Phrases such as, "bullet-pocked
walls," "spraying of gunfire," and
"military maneuvers" are prevalent throughout
the media's coverage. These phrases also evoke emotions out of the
audience. Again, the audience can get visuals, and relate to the
situation. Sanitization is not a framing technique used in the media's
coverage of the shooting.
A small town is struck with a tragedy and the
media uses this frame to communicate to the audience. What the media
communicates is a hypothesis, stating why small towns are no longer immune
to violence.
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