How local news can help heal Philly’s gun violence crisis, instead of make it worse

Stoneleigh Fellow Jessica Beard and Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting were featured by Billy Penn for organizing a workshop to discuss how news media covers gun violence.

What if we let Philadelphians dictate how local newsrooms approached coverage of gun violence?

That was the big question at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting‘s Better Gun Violence Reporting workshop last week. Reporters across the city’s broadcast and radio stations joined anti-violence researchers and advocates at Germantown’s Wyck House for a day of rethinking the crime beat.

The workshop was inspired by a forthcoming paper from PCGVR research director and Temple Hospital trauma surgeon Jessica Beard. It found that episodic, close-ended coverage of individual shootings can dehumanize and isolate survivors.

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