Above: Dr. Jessica Beard discusses research at PCGVR’s What Now national conference last fall. Photograph by Kriston Jae Bethel.
Philadelphia has seen encouraging signs of progress in reducing gun violence. But even as incidents decline, researchers say another factor deserves attention: how the news media covers those shootings and whether certain forms of reporting can cause harm to the communities most affected. — Temple Now
“Gun violence is preventable. Reporting should help people understand why it happens and what works to stop it.” — Dr. Jessica Beard, PCGVR Director of Research
• Read the Temple Now coverage: Changing the narrative: Researchers call for a new approach to reporting gun violence [Temple Now]
• Read the peer-reviewed study: Examining disparities in harmful reporting on community firearm violence in Philadelphia television news reports [Injury Epidemiology]
• Contact Dr. Beard via: pcgvr.org/contact
More PCGVR research news:
• Dr. Beard and a colleague also had a commentary published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in response to Toward a Safer World by 2040: The JAMA Summit Report on Reducing Firearm Violence and Harms, which was published last fall.
• We felt deeply honored to find PCGVR recognized in “Breaking Barriers in Academic Surgery,” a chapter from our friend and colleague Dr. Elinore Kaufman in new book “Women in Surgery: Navigating Challenges and Triumphs.”
• We were also pleased to find several studies from our research director and collaborative cited in this important recent study: Quantifying racial disparities in media representations of gun violence at scale, published by the National Academy of Sciences.