How Philly became ground zero for rethinking gun violence reporting

This is the first in a two-part series about Philadelphia s role in shaping gun violence reporting across the country This first installment focuses on the rising awareness of gun violence as a society healthcare issue The second installment highlights survivor and journalist voices and collaboration Journalists who record on gun violence are swimming in uncharted waters and a conference held last month in Philly dove headfirst into this rapidly changing surroundings attracting nearly journalists scientific researchers educators and survivors of gun violence to discuss the question of What Now Gun Violence Reporting in Unprecedented Times The good news deaths by gun violence have fallen steadily to record lows since cresting during the pandemic The city ended with the lowest number of homicides in a decade and that same trend is echoed in cities across the U S The bad news disinformation conspiracy theories and vacuums of information threaten to overwhelm and perhaps overturn that progress Aben Clayton speaks at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting s national conference Photos by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR Gun violence before this year was already one of the the greater part complex multi-faceted of topics in this country in particular explained Jim MacMillan journalist and founder of the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting PCGVR Now events of the last insufficient months have changed the demands on journalists At the same time MacMillan noted it s becoming more clear that the same things that worked for prevention last year will work this year But we are dealing with journalists who are swimming in a perfectly unprecedented ecosystem of disinformation and changes Changing perceptions Over the past decade prevention work from experts and advocates has focused on finding and creating solutions and raising awareness of the idea of gun violence as a community physical condition issue rather than as a criminal justice issue Former Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy gave the issue a mainstream boost in but popular perception of and news coverage on gun violence has continued to focus on crime and high-profile shootings Dr Jessica Beard observed the disconnect in real life through her work as a trauma surgeon with Temple University Hospital leading her to dedicate her time and research into finding and promoting solutions-focused approaches that take into account public firearm violence also known as interpersonal gun violence I take care of people who are shot so I am deeply invested in preventing gun violence When I tried to read news reports about my patients and about gun violence more generally in Philadelphia I learned about episodic crime reports framing violence more as a crime issue than a general wellness issue Dr Beard revealed For the past seven years I ve been building research evidence and recommendations for journalists to tell the stories better Trauma surgeon and PCGVR Research Director Dr Jessica Beard leads a session at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting s national conference Photos by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR The resulting materials a reporting toolkit an online platform to connect journalists and survivors formal training a short documentary video and a professional organization are now proving foundational to the evolving national conversation around how gun violence is portrayed in news media A lot of research does exist when it comes to self-inflicted injury or mass shootings that can guide journalists to statement on those events But far less or nothing is out there when it comes to locality gun violence revealed Dr Beard who also serves as director of research with PCGVR On her and PCGVR s work each step has been incremental All the work has been collaborative with folks who we consider our public People with lived experience journalists scholars There have been multiple different great growing points where we ve been able to identify necessities After the Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit hosted at WHYY s offices in focused on human-centered design attendee feedback identified a need for a toolkit and also building connection between survivors and journalists Dr Beard mentioned And in the end a need for training she continued noting the progression from the smaller scheme in to this month s conference on the national stage It has been organic but incremental and we use research in the background to inform everything we re doing We add layer upon layer and it has been very collaborative with folks around the country doing the same work Temple University s Prof Yvonne Latty speaks during a panel of gun violence survivors and advocates at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting s national conference Photos by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR Evidence-based and solutions-driven Since joining PCGVR Dr Beard has published dozens of research studies around trauma gun violence residents fitness the impact of media coverage on neighborhoods and people and community-based violence making her one of the country s leading experts on these issues Her research and that of other wellbeing professionals also had the benefit of being part of the boom in such work after the end of the Dickey Amendment in The law passed by Congress in after years of lobbying by the National Rifle Association NRA restricted funding for research into the relationship between gun violence and community healthcare for more than years During those two decades mass shootings particularly at schools skyrocketed as did criticism of the Dickey Amendment and the NRA decreasing society promotion and or apathy to the amendment s annual inclusion in cabinet funding bills When the restrictions ended in researchers rushed to make up for lost time Still the silence had a lasting impact and the legacy of sensational crime reports in media narratives like the adage if it bleeds it leads remained One of the the bulk exciting things in current times is the conversations people are having Dr Beard narrated Billy Penn When I think about past conversations these are really deep and nuanced down to the nitty gritty about how to make gun violence reporting better Eric Marsh Jr moderates a panel talk with the board of the Association of Gun Violence Reporters at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting s national conference Photos by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR The biggest challenge now Getting the word out Reaching journalists Moving to a more national presence And in the research it s sustaining the research and taking it to the next level Dr Beard noted Next up for Dr Beard is completing a project that looks at TV news reporting and the rate of harmful news content elements in the TV news reports We ve done a lot of work on that and putting that together and hoping to present it in various constituents wellness places and to journalists After that comes taking action in practice To work with journalists to create TV news reports that minimize harm And test their impact on people with lived experience she disclosed We ve identified harms want to backing journalists to make better news reports and then see how people respond to them Part II in the series will be published the subsequent day The post How Philly became ground zero for rethinking gun violence reporting appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY