In the aftermath of the massacre in a school in Texas, the words to talk about it seem very heavy.
How to evoke the author of this drama which affects the United States with full force?
The French media spoke this morning of
"unbalanced"
,
"crazy"
,
"adolescent"
or even
"young shooter"
who
"opened fire"
on schoolchildren.
In the Anglo-Saxon press, the words
"gunman"
,
"shooter"
,
"tennager"
are invoked, but also
"mass murder"
or
"mass shooting"
.
“murderer”
or
“murderer”
appeared very little in France.
Why do we use circumlocutions?
Legal caution
For François Jost, semiologist and professor of information and communication sciences at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle, the use of the word
“suspect”
follows
“a logic of caution”
.
"Just like 'murderer' which is used instead of 'assassin', as long as the investigation has not determined the exact causes"
.
Same echo with Alain Rodier, specialist in terrorism and organized crime, and former officer in the French intelligence services…
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