Significant biases and stereotypes that surface in the news skew the public’s perception of gun violence and its victims, a wide-ranging report found.
The analysis, called the Media Accountability Project, explored the racial and geographical disparities in the coverage of gun violence in the United States.
Community Justice partnered with researchers at Northwestern University and the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science to conduct the research.
The project’s main finding was the portrayal and description of a gun violence incident varied dramatically depending on where the shooting occurred.
“Overall,” the report reads, “our multi-method analysis of nearly 12,000 media accounts of incidents of gun violence present converging evidence to the same, critical finding: the portrayal and descriptions of the individuals involved in gun violence varied tremendously depending on where the incident occurred. Not only were there proportionally fewer incidents covered in communities of color, but they also disproportionately presented what happened rather than why the incident happened as was more commonly observed in incidents occurring in majority white neighborhoods.”
With that in mind, the goal of their research is to shift the media narratives on gun violence “towards more equitable and accurate representations and demonstrates the need for a balanced and people-centered approach to gun violence coverage,” according to the report.
They also set out to “determine the extent to which racial differences among the individuals and communities where gun violence occurs create real, measurable differences in the way that incidents are reported and ultimately viewed.”
Examinations like this are a crucial opportunity for reporters and newsrooms to examine the biases inherent to their coverage. As with any other health conditions, race and geography play a major part in shaping a person’s and community’s health and safety.
Health care journalists should pay close attention to reports like these to both understand the impacts of racial bias and to find new and insightful story angles and ideas.
The findings
To examine the impacts of race and gun violence in the media, researchers collected and combined nearly 30,000 print and digital articles and about 12,000 TV news segments related to nearly 12,000 shootings in the U.S. over the last four years.
From there, researchers used census tracts to determine the “racial neighborhood of each incident” based on whether its census tract was home to more than 50% non-Hispanic white residents or greater than 50% Black or Hispanic/Latino residents.
They then used language processing tools and statistical methods to identify key words and patterns found in articles and TV segments. They then compared the coverage across communities throughout the U.S.
Their research suggests that the news media prioritizes and contextualizes shootings that happen in white neighborhoods in ways not seen in communities of color.
For example, from the report: “Media accounts of gun violence in communities of color receive disproportionately less focus than events in majority white communities. Even though 63% of gun violence incidents occur in communities of color, an incident from a majority white neighborhood is 50% more likely to receive national attention than an incident from a community of color.”
And it can be even more stark depending on the type of gun violence. A mass shooting in a community of color receives nearly half the expected coverage as a mass shooting in a white neighborhood. On the flip side, police-involved shootings in a community of color receive more coverage than similar incidents in white neighborhoods.
The project also examined the images used to accompany articles and segments. Images and live footage from crime scenes were used more often in incidents in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, about 41%, while those images were only used 28% of the time in white neighborhoods.
Coverage of shootings in white neighborhoods also tend to have more context included in the reporting. Families of victims, community members, police and politicians are quoted more often in those stories compared to reporting on communities of color.
Reporting in communities of color more likely mentions gangs or police, whether or nor the incident involved gangs or police. Meanwhile, coverage in white neighborhoods usually draws on comparisons to other “notable incidents” and connects to “broader policy impacts and
discussions of mental health.”
How the media can do better
The project offers ways for the media to improve gun violence coverage:
- Strive for equitable coverage of shootings regardless of where they occur. That especially means broader and more thorough coverage of communities of color.
- Avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes, such as using language and imagery that perpetuate biases.
- Contextualize the people and communities involved in shootings. The report found that coverage of communities of color often leaves out context and quotes from the people impacted.
- Highlight evidence-based gun violence solutions.
