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The Media Spectacle of Columbine

Alienated Youth as an Object of Fear

Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California

Although youth violence and "delinquency" have frequently generated fear of alienated youth in American life, especially since the 1950s, the media coverage of the Columbine shootings reconstructed youth alienation in novel ways, generating a new fear and reality of "alien" youth. Analysis of both print and television media shows that following Columbine, school shooters have come to stand for an entire constellation of threats and troubles now ostensibly emanating from the very lifeworlds of formerly harmless White suburban youth. These lifeworlds have been typically framed in terms of alienation: as new forms of adolescent estrangement from parents, schools, and the major institutions and dominant culture of American life.

Key Words: alienation • columbine • media • spectacle

This version was published on June 1, 2009

American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 52, No. 10, 1387-1404 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0002764209332554


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