How To Write A Rhetorical Analysis Of Columbine Shooting

When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold terrorized Columbine High School nearly twenty years ago, the shooting shocked the nation. However, as the media incorrectly reported- the attack on Columbine High School was not an intended school shooting, but rather an elaborate terror plot with the hopes of killing hundreds of people.It had been decades since terror of this magnitude had occurred on school grounds, and the first one that had occurred in the dawn of mass media. Never before had the media become so up close and personal with the victims, to the point where they were able to talk to the students while the shooting was happening. But with this new sense of power and responsibility to quickly inform the public and develop conclusions, danger

Throughout his analysis of the immediate response following the massacre, Cullen portrays the media as responsible for the perpetuation of misinformation following the shooting.
Primarily, Cullen uses rhetorical devices to describe the many ways that the media were to blame for allowing rumors and myths to dominate the headlines. He utilizes repetition, with long lists to show how much the media got wrong. Although most people remember Columbine differently, there were “No Goths, no outcasts, nobody snapping… no targets, no feud, and no Trench Coat Mafia… no connection to Marilyn Manson, Hitler’s birthday, minorities, or Christians” (Cullen 149). Cullen captures all of the misconceptions about the shooting and lists them in a way to expose how incorrect they all were. The common factor between the shooting and all of these supposed links was that they were brought to prominence by the media even before they had all the details.His utilization of lists shows that many sought to create a reason, a motive for the shooting even when none could be found. So

He explains that the public perception of a school shooter was an “outcast loner” which helps explain why many gravitated toward the theory that Dylan and Eric were victims of bullying who were unpopular. One of the theories that supported the belief that the shooters were lonely people was that they were involved with the Trench Coat Mafia. This was a group “portrayed as a cult of homosexual Goths in makeup” who were going to commit violence by the year 2000 (Cullen 150). This error in connecting the boys with the Trench Coat Mafia certainly makes sense as they were both wearing trench coats while commiting the massacre and it certainly would be appropriate for school shooters to be a part of this dark, violent cult. This leads to Cullen’s most effective usage of cause and effect, as he explains how the Trench Coat Mafia rumor reached such a large audience in the first place. Contrary to public opinion, “most kids in Clement Park were not citing the TCM” but the theory only gained support after the media outlets kept repeating the idea over and over again (Cullen 150). Soon it quickly became a given that the Trench Coat Mafia was involved, because of what was presented in the media. However, instead of the kids telling the media who was behind that attack, “it was the other way around” (Cullen 151). Cullen explains that