The Survivor Connection aims to deepen understanding of gun violence
A groundbreaking program launched by The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting promises to facilitate more empathetic, ethical and impactful news reporting in the city by bridging a gap between journalists and the survivor community.
The Survivor Connection database will enable journalists to connect with hundreds of community members with lived experience of gun violence in an effort to broaden the narrative beyond traditional police reporting. READ THE PRESS RELEASE
Above: Vases filled with flowers were placed in Independence Mall in Philadelphia in 2021 to honor lives lost to gun violence in Pennsylvania.
“The suffering of our patients motivates us to do research to prevent gun violence – and the suffering we witnessed during the pandemic-related surge of gun violence very nearly brought us to our knees. We want research to stop our patients from being shot. We want research to stop them from dying.”
– PCGVR director or research Dr. Jessica Beard and colleague Dr. Elinore Kaufman express their concerns with federal funding cuts to gun violence prevention research in this new essay for The Guardian. Both are also trauma surgeons who care for firearm-injured patents in Philadelphia.
In June, 2024, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published a landmark Surgeon General’s Advisory on Firearm Violence, declaring firearm violence in America to be a public health crisis, along with a companion video. Somebody took them down. We put them back online. GET THE ADVISORY | MORE INFO | SUPPORT PCGVR
Above: Researchers participating in our collaborative gathered for a meeting at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Photo by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR.
PCGVR director of research Dr. Jessica Beard is the corresponding author on a new study: Defining harmful news reporting on community firearm violence: A modified Delphi consensus study.
The study included 21 experts — from the gun violence survivor community, journalism practice, and scholarship — who participated in a three-round anonymous survey; an iterative process through which they identified 12 specific harmful elements found in news reports, and then rated those harms across individual, community and society levels.
They determined that news stories including graphic content, episodic framing of individual incidents with little or no context, and those which do not explore solutions have the potential to cause severe harm at all three levels. The panelists also found that harmful elements were most detrimental to people who had survived gunshot injuries. MORE FINDINGS | READ THE STUDY | OUR PREVIOUS RESEARCH | CONTACT THE TEAM
Above: PCGVR director of research Dr. Jessica Beard and newsroom liaison Oronde McClain appear during the webinar.
JANUARY 15, 2025: Thank you to CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, moderator Dr. Allison Arwady, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, co-panelist Justin Reid, director of storytelling at Cities United, and to the nearly 400 people who attended our 90-minute webinar: Building Community Resiliency Through Storytelling and Media Narratives.
PCGVR director of research Dr. Jessica Beard’s talk included an introduction to our new research: Defining harmful news reporting on community firearm violence: A modified Delphi consensus study. PCGVR newsroom liaison Oronde McClain introduced our upcoming project that he will be directing: the Survivor Connection.
We are grateful for the opportunity to participate and have been delighted to find that dozens of people had subscribed to this newsletter and downloaded our free Better Gun Violence Reporting Toolkit by the end of the session.
As requested by many in during the event, we have made both presentation decks available from our team:
During this event, our partners at the CDC shared their resource: Community Violence Prevention – RESOURCE FOR ACTION – A Compilation of the Best Available Evidence for Youth and Young Adults
Our director of research Dr. Jessica Beard joined three of our favorite reporting partners for a discussion on how to shift story framing to one that emphasizes solutions, prevention methods, and data. This is a master class.
Check out our 2024 Year in Review for a recap of our activities, a list of of organizations who partnered with us, links to our media coverage last year and more.
And subscribe to our free Weekly Brief email newsletter to keep update with important new announcements beginning this month.
Clockwise above from top, left: Moderator Laura Bennet, director of The Center for Just Journalism, and AGVR founding staffers: Jennifer Mascia from The Trace and CNN, independent journalist Alain Stephens, Sammy Caiola from the Kensington Voice and Abené Clayton from The Guardian.
Leaders of the new Association of Gun Violence Reporters kicked off activities with a webinar in December, 2024. The organization was launched with support from PCGVR. WATCH NOW.
“Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun,” is a new documentary produced by PBS News Student Reporting Labs and featuring stories produced by 14 young journalists from around the country, including an interview with PCGVR director or research Dr. Jessica Beard. WATCH THE FULL DOCUMENTARY | JUMP TO DR. BEARD’S INTERVIEW
Behind the scenes: The student producer who interviewed Dr. Beard shared some kind and encouraging words in a new op-ed published in Teen Vogue:
“After the interview, I felt seen and heard, and it was amazing talking to a researcher who studies a topic that’s so close to home for me. And I left feeling more hopeful for the future of gun violence prevention.” — Ethan Rodriguez
Above: The team behind our Survivor Connection project — Oronde McClain, Caroline Suárez and John Paul Titlow — introduced the new project web site Saturday at Klein Camp, Philadelphia’s annual one-day conference on the future of news at Temple University here in Philadelphia. Photographs by Kriston Jae Bethel.
The Survivor Connection is a new tool that will help reporters put the survivor at the center of their coverage. The public launch will take place early in the new year.
Sammy Caiola, who also leads our new Association of Gun Violence Reporters, wrote about the Survivor Connection for the Reynolds Journalism Institute: Survivor Connection links reporters with gun violence survivor community
Community Voices of Healing, Reflection and Hope is a new podcast from the Credible Messenger Reporting Project at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting (PCGVR). Host and executive producer Maxayn Gooden is the Credible Messenger Community Manager at PCGVR. She interviews and facilitates conversations among other members of the survivor community in Philadelphia, taking the time to share their experiences in a safe place and in extraordinary depth. LISTEN & SHARE
Clockwise from top-left, above: PCGVR research director Dr. Jessica Beard and newsroom liaison Oronde McClain, Temple University Journalism Prof. Yvonne Latty, who also directs the Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting at Temple, and PCGVR founder and director Jim MacMillan. (Missouri School of Journalism photos)
Several members of our team were honored with the opportunity to visit the University of Missouri School of Journalism last week. We screened our collaborative documentary The Second Trauma in five classes and then during a public evening event hosted by the Missouri student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. We handed out more than 100 copies of our Better Gun Violence Reporting Toolkit and engaged in conversations with nearly 150 students and more than a dozen faculty members and deans.
The Second Trauma documentary tour is underway. We are visiting colleges and universities, journalism conferences, newsrooms and other organizations. To request an exclusive screening and expert panel discussion, visit: thesecondtrauma.net
02.16.24: PCGVR director Jim MacMillan and Alaina Bookman of AL.com discussed our recent Gun Violence Prevention Reporter Certification Workshop in this webinar hosted by the Association of Health Care Journalists.
Some of the data is this video is now out of date but this is still a great primer on public health strategies to prevent gun violence, including interviews with our research director Dr. Jessica Beard and a couple of our favorite partners.
We were honored with the opportunity to co-produce and participate in this invigorating and informative conversation on advancing community-centered and solutions-oriented reporting on gun violence in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities in 2022.
While we track every shooting in Philadelphia, care deeply and empathize with everyone affected, and work hard to prevent future gun violence, we do not report on individual incidents. Mass shootings, large new outbreaks of gun violence and some individual incidents can lead to an onslaught of rampant misreporting while even accurate news coverage can create multiple harms.
If you must report on individual incidents, please consider the guidance presented in our Better Gun Violence Reporting Toolkit, watch our documentary on the harmful effects of some kinds of news coverage and learn how to care for yourself and others in order to minimize harm. MORE RESOURCES
We are here to dispel myths, elevate facts, provide hope, build resilience, and amplify the voices of victims and survivors of gun violence that, for far too long, have been silenced, ignored, diminished, and undervalued. But we need your help.
PCGVR director of operations Eric Marsh and Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain discussed our work on Block by Block, PhillyCAM’s LIVE community news radio program. (Segment begins at 2:45.)
So far this year, the PCGVR team has visited, top to bottom: Washington and Lee University in Virginia, the Carter Journalism Institute at NYU, Jefferson University here in Philadelphia, Common Justice in Brooklyn and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. To keep up on PCGVR activities, please subscribe to our free Weekly Brief email newsletter.
Each week we share news from our center, local updates from our partners at Billy Penn and all the latest gun violence and prevention headlines. This week: Behind the scenes with the Survivor Connection. FSU campus mass shooting aftermath. And all the headlines. Read More
Sixteen shooting victims were recorded from April 13 through April 20 in Philadelphia, including four fatalities, according to city data. During the previous week: 13 shooting victims were recorded, but no fatalities. Map: nickhand.dev
New interview: Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting Director of Research Dr. Jessica Beard discusses our latest study with Loraine Ballard Morrill, News Director and Community Affairs Director for iHeartMedia’s six Philadelphia stations. READ THE STUDY | READ THE PRESS RELEASE | CLICK TO PLAY THE INTERVIEW:
The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting is thrilled to welcome Eric Marsh Sr., a celebrated community organizer and gun violence prevention advocate, into the new role of Director of Operations. The appointment comes as PCGVR, founded in 2020 as a local journalism support organization to advance gun violence prevention reporting, expands its programs — and reach — across the United States. READ THE COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE
Members of the multidisciplinary research collaborative led by PCGVR research director Jessica Beard meets at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. Photograph by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR.
Dr. Jessica Beard is the director of research at The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting. Through her Stoneleigh Foundation Fellowship, Dr. has been working at PCGVR to deepen the media narrative around gun violence, with the goal of increasing support for policies and programs to curb the epidemic and save lives. Use our Contact form form to leave a message for Dr. Beard.
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News coverage of gun violence often inadvertently perpetuates stereotypical narratives about the people and communities most impacted. Typical coverage focuses on individual episodes of gun violence and often lacks an explanation of what causes it and what could be done to prevent it. These reporting practices can further stigmatize marginalized communities and promote fatalism around gun violence prevention. By changing the way gun violence is covered, reporters can take an active role in minimizing harm to injured people, communities, and society—and even make an important contribution toward preventing gun violence.
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• About the Center
• Who We Are
• Community Reporting
• Interdisciplinary Research
• Professional Development
• Media Mentions
• Free Weekly Brief
Funders
• The Stoneleigh Foundation
• Independence Public Media Foundation
• Spring Point Partners
• The William Penn Foundation
• HFGF
• Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund
• The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
• The Alfred and Mary Douty Foundation
• Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri
• Philadelphia Office of Violence Prevention
• The Barra Foundation Directors Grant Program
In-kind contributors
• WHYY
• Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists
• Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri
• Mothers in Charge
• AH Datalytics
• Action Tank
• The Scattergood Foundation
• Resolve Philly
• Fels Lab at the University of Pennsylvania
Community Partners
• Mothers in Charge
• YEAH Philly
• Zero Homicides Now
• Need in Deed
Media Partners
• Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting
• WHYY & Billy Penn
• The Trace & Up the Block
• Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists
• 5 Shorts Project
• Kouvenda Media
• Seeking Solutions: Gun Violence in Missouri
• Philadelphia Obituary Project
• Resolve Philly
• WURD Radio
• Columbia Journalism Review
• The Student Vanguard at Community College of Philadelphia
• Revive Radio
Summit partner institutions
• Reynolds Journalism Institute, University of Missouri
• Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma as Columbia University
• WHYY
• The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
• The Trace
• The Guardian: Guns and Lies
• Coalition of Trauma Centers for Firearm Injury Prevention
• Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
• Guns & America, WAMU
• Mothers in Charge
This Advisory describes the public health crisis of firearm violence in America and strategies for firearm injury and violence prevention, with a focus on the health and well-being of children, families, and communities. It has been removed from the official government sire where is had been posted but we saved you a copy.
Research shows when enacted in combination, these five key policies and programmatic priorities have the potential to save countless lives.
Related: Reducing Gun Violence in America: Evidence for Change [Coursera]
If you or someone you know is suicidal, in crisis, or in need of general mental health support, please know help is available. You can contact your physician, local hospital emergency room, or any of the hotlines, text lines, web chats, and support groups listed below. Most are free and confidential resources. Many are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
• Crisis Text Line: 741741
• Lifeline Chat web chat service
• Samaritans’ Helpline: (877) 870-4673 (available in 240+ languages)
Journalists: Take this online course on Responsible Reporting on Suicide. (You can audit for free or pay to get certified.)
The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
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Philadelphia, PA 19107
Since we launched in 2020, PCGVR programs, staffers, partners, events, participants and impact have been featured in nearly 150 news reports. For the complete list, please visit: Media Mentions: PCGVR in the News
The Philadelphia Center Gun Violence Reporting is the primary project of The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting. The Initiative is co-managed with fiscal sponsorship by CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia and is a member of CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia. EIN: 46-3109411
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