Michigan State University And The Mass Shooting Narrative

Overview

On Monday night East Lansing, Michigan fell victim to the latest mass shooting. For many hours, those who were on the Michigan State campus were ordered to shelter in place after a gunman opened fire in Berkley Hall, the social science building, killing two students. The shooter then moved to Michigan State's student union and killed one other. Their names were, Arielle Anderson, Alexandia Verner, Brian Fraser. The gunman killed three students and injured five others. After hours of searching, the police closed on the suspect who was apparently “just walking home”. As police moved in to arrest the suspect took his own life. 

This shooting amplifies a larger narrative that has been discussed across the country for many years. According to USA Today there have been 71 mass shootings in the U.S in 2023, that's more than one per day this year. 

In this Kudzu Narrative Brief we examine how the media has reacted to this event.

Key Insights

• The first thing that jumps out to you in this brief is that the left leaning media has covered this topic much more than the right has. Our module picked up 1,468 "left bias” sources amplifying this story, compared to 745 individual sources from the “right bias” outlets.
• The term “gun violence” saw 1,531 unique mentions over the last week. This was the most popular term that was unrelated to geographic location (such as “Michigan State”, “East Lansing”).
• The name “Chris Rozman'' is the most popular name by source. Chris Rozman is the deputy chief of police in East Lansing, which demonstrates how closely the media is keeping an eye on his actions and words. 280 U.S. media outlets mentioned Chris Rozman by name.