Media Spectacle and Domestic Terrorism: The Case of the Batman/Joker Cinema Massacre

摘要

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes See my detailed analyses of how school and other mass shooters resolve their crises of masculinities by producing media spectacles of mass carnage in Guys and Guns Amok (Kellner 2008 Kellner , D. ( 2008 ). Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombings to the Virginia Tech Massacre . Boulder , CO : Paradigm Press . [Google Scholar]). For an ever-expanding “Time Line of Worldwide School and Mass Shootings” since 1996, see http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html (accessed on December 20, 2012). For a global “list of rampage killers,” see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers. Thomas Peipert and P. Solomon Banda, “James Holmes, suspected Aurora, Colorado ‘Dark Knight Rises,’” Associated Press, July 20, 2012, http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/national/james-holmes-suspected-aurora-colorado-dark-knight-rises-shooter-i-am-the-joker#ixzz2GScyG7hf; see also Shelia Marikar, “Was James Holmes, Suspected Aurora Shooter, Inspired by Batman?” ABC News, July 20, 2012, at http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/james-holmes-suspected-aurora-shooter-inspired-batman/story?id=16822504. Marikar reports, “Law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News that Holmes said ‘I am the Joker’ when apprehended by authorities.” By diagnostic critique I refer to a mode of cultural criticism that uses media, cultural, and social theory to provide context and tools of analysis and interpretation that can help provide understanding of events like the Aurora Theater Massacre, or the Sandy Hook Elementary Slaughter, reveal the social pathologies involved, and suggest solutions; on diagnostic critique, see Kellner and Ryan (1988 Kellner , D. and Ryan , M. ( 1988 ). Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film . Bloomington : Indiana University Press . [Google Scholar]); Kellner (1995 Kellner , D. ( 1995 ). Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern . London and New York : Routledge .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2010 Kellner , D. ( 2010 ). Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush/Cheney Era . Malden , MA : Blackwell . [Google Scholar]). Holmes' medical records have been sealed so we can only speculate concerning his specific personal reasons for undertaking the monstrous massacre (see Note 11 below). The description of Holmes' life here conforms to the Wikipedia entry “James Eagan Holmes,” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Eagan_Holmes; each event of Holmes' past is rooted here in mainstream media sources. Yet in the absence of a serious scholarly work on Holmes and the Aurora shootings, Holmes' life remains something of a mystery. Daily Mail Reporter, “Batman mask and movie poster found in apartment of Dark Knight ‘killer’ who called himself The Joker … Authorities say 100-round drum magazine gunman attached to his assault weapon jammed,” Mail Online, July 23, 2012, at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177532/Dark-Knight-Rises-shooting-Aurora-Colorado-Batman-mask-poster-James-Holmess-apartment.html#ixzz2GMvKe0vz. See Poppy Harlow, “Robots reveal ‘unique’ setup in suspect's apartment,” CNN, July 21, 2012, at http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-shooting-suspect-apartment/index.html. Associated Press, “After Colorado theater massacre, fear prompts people to buy guns and puts moviegoers on edge,” July 25, 2012, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/after-colorado-theater-massacre-fear-prompts-people-to-buy-guns-and-puts-moviegoers-on-edge/2012/07/25/gJQApV1F8W_print.html. In fact, gun sales proliferated throughout the country after the Aurora shooting. As the article cited above noted, “Seattle … saw nearly twice as many requests for concealed pistol licenses than the same timeframe a year ago. Connecticut processed 38 percent more gun-related records over the past several days compared with the same period two months prior. Florid