The Virginia Tech Massacre: Who Does the Media Blame? Dataset

This dataset consists of a content analysis of 100 news articles covering the Virginia Tech Massacre of 2007. The articles were drawn from three news publications: The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post. The analysis focused on the following questions: how the media frames the event focusing on education systems, how policy and security function within education, and how the media frames mental illness through coding key words and statements related to the codes. The media discusses Seung-Hui Cho’s extensive mental illness as a factor, Virginia Tech's lack of knowledge of Seung-Hui Cho's mental illness as well as not connecting the dots to see a young man capable of homicide.