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Systematic disparities in reporting on community firearm violence on local television news in Philadelphia, PA, USA

Beard, Jessica H.
; 
Raissian, Raha
; 
Roberts, Leah
; 
Partain, Laura
; 
Midberry, Jennifer
; 
Walker Tia
; 
Trombley, Shannon
; 
MacMillan, Jim
; 
Morrison, Christopher N.
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Journal article
Date
2024-04-20
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Department
Surgery
Subject
Firearm violence
 Health communication
 Media
 Media framing
 Violence prevention
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https://scholarshare.temple.edu/handle/20.500.12613/11937
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BeardEtAl-JournalArticle-2024-04.pdf
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102739
Abstract
Objective To better understand how community firearm violence (CFV) is communicated to the public, we aimed to identify systematic differences between the characteristics of shooting victims and events covered on television news and all shootings in Philadelphia, PA, a city with escalating CFV incidence. Methods We compiled a stratified sample of local television news clips covering shootings that occurred in Philadelphia aired on two randomly selected days per month from January-June 2021 (n = 154 clips). We coded the clips to determine demographic and geographic information about the shooting victims and events and then matched coded shootings with corresponding shootings in the Philadelphia police database. We compared characteristics of shooting victims and shooting event locations depicted in television clips (n = 62) with overall characteristics of shootings in Philadelphia during the study period (n = 1082). Results Compared to all individuals shot, victims whose shootings were covered on local television news more likely to be children and more likely to be shot in a mass shooting. The average median household income of shooting locations featured on television was significantly higher than the median household income across all shooting locations ($60,302 for television shootings vs. $41,233 for all shootings; p = 0.002). Shootings featured on television occurred in areas with lower rates of income inequality and racialized economic segregation compared to all shooting locations. Conclusions Television news outlets in Philadelphia systematically over-reported shootings of children, mass shootings, and shootings that occurred in neighborhoods with higher median household income, less socioeconomic inequality, and lower rates of racialized economic segregation.
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Jessica H. Beard, Raha Raissian, Leah Roberts, Laura Partain, Jennifer Midberry, Tia Walker, Shannon Trombley, Jim MacMillan, Christopher N. Morrison, Systematic disparities in reporting on community firearm violence on local television news in Philadelphia, PA, USA, Preventive Medicine Reports, Volume 42, 2024, 102739, ISSN 2211-3355, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102739. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335524001542)
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Elsevier
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Preventive Medicine Reports, Vol. 42
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