Expressive violence: the performative effects of subversive participatory media uses

Abstract

This article discusses the communication strategies employed by 8 school shooters who used participatory media to frame their acts as well as their identity. By resorting to content analysis of 78 self-produced videos and 101 portraits, the findings show how audiovisual communication can be used to trigger the performative aspects of cultural scripts of contemporary forms of expressive violence and thus institutionalize a social movement (i.e. school shooting subculture). These proceedings produce association to a subversive movement, providing a political connotation to the act and a renewed positive identity.