Drawing from the theories of networked gatekeeping and affective publics, this study compares how news media and social media users shaped the discourse surrounding the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings. We investigate both the substantive (topics) and affective (emotions) dimensions of news articles and tweets, showcasing how institutional media and the public engage in the social construction of mass shootings involving people of underserved communities. To do so, we built two datasets: 964 news articles and 265,951 tweets. The findings from the computer-assisted content analysis reveal that Twitter users focused more on humanizing the victims and contextualizing the Atlanta spa shootings within the broader framework of anti-Asian racism, in contrast to the news outlets. Twitter users expressed significantly greater anger and fear than what is reflected in the news articles. This study also demonstrates that the news stories failed to acknowledge the intersecting identities of the victims. The findings contribute to our understanding of how journalists and individuals shape agendas and convey their affective reactions through news and social media. We suggest actions that can be taken to create a more inclusive and culturally responsive media environment.

中文翻译：

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这不仅仅是“8 人死亡”：通过网络把关和情感公众的视角审视亚特兰大温泉枪击事件的新闻和 Twitter 的社会构建


这项研究借鉴网络把关和情感公众的理论，比较了新闻媒体和社交媒体用户如何塑造围绕 2021 年亚特兰大温泉枪击事件的言论。我们调查新闻文章和推文的实质性（主题）和情感（情感）维度，展示机构媒体和公众如何参与涉及服务不足社区人群的大规模枪击事件的社会建构。为此，我们构建了两个数据集：964 篇新闻文章和 265,951 条推文。计算机辅助内容分析的结果显示，与新闻媒体相比，推特用户更注重将受害者人性化，并将亚特兰大温泉枪击事件置于更广泛的反亚裔种族主义框架内。推特用户表达的愤怒和恐惧比新闻文章中反映的要严重得多。这项研究还表明，新闻报道未能承认受害者的交叉身份。这些发现有助于我们了解记者和个人如何通过新闻和社交媒体制定议程并传达他们的情感反应。我们建议采取行动，创造一个更具包容性和文化响应性的媒体环境。