Part of the recurring debate over America’s gun violence addresses questions over news media coverage. These questions become more urgent when children are victims, such as in the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, according to Patrick Plaisance, Don W. Davis Professor in Ethics in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State, in a new Insights from Experts post.
What kind of coverage is appropriate? Should journalists ever show bodies and blood? Would such graphic coverage galvanize public opinion into policy, or would it numb us even more to the parade of gun violence? Some have begun calling for more dramatic action by journalists to depict results of the violence – even perhaps the bodies of victims.
According to Plaisance, media needs to better balance respect for victims with the moral imperative to see the reality of gun violence. They may even help us find the sense-making narratives needed to prompt more effective responses. Read more here.
For more on information on gun violence, mental health, Covid-19 and other issues, visit the Insights from Experts website — a partnership of Penn State's Social Science Research Institute and the Center for Health Care and Policy Research.