Penn Med study finds that media overreports fatal and multiple shootings

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine found that media coverage on gun shootings places a disproportionate emphasis on fatal and multiple shootings, while under-reporting shootings of victims that are Black and male.

In the study, published on Oct. 19 in the journal Preventative Medicine, doctors who regularly treat gunshot victims analyzed police reports and information kept by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group, to monitor 2017 media reporting in three different U.S cities: Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Rochester, NY. 

Of the 1,801 victims of intentional shootings in these cities, the researchers found that only about half of them were covered in the news. Researchers further observed that roughly 83% of intentional shooting victims were Black, yet just 49% of them made the news. Data from the study also suggests that shootings of women were over-reported by the news — female victims were about 60% more likely to be covered on the news than male victims.

"As a trauma surgeon and someone who feels very connected to my patients, I take notice of gun violence coverage in the news—most often the lack thereof," assistant professor of Surgery in Traumatology and study's lead author, Elinore Kaufman, told Medical Press. "I am particularly saddened when I find there was no media reporting on the shootings that have caused injury and death to my patients, which is most often the case."  

Researchers also found that Philadelphia had the most shooting victims in 2017 with 1,216, compared to 407 and 178 in Cincinnati and Rochester respectively. Shooting victims in Philadelphia were covered only 46% of the time, compared to 55% of victims in Cincinnati and 65% of victims in Rochester.

The study claimed that disparities in news coverage could prevent the U.S. public from having a “comprehensive understanding” of firearm injury. Statistics show that one in four Americans believe that mass shootings are the leading cause of death from a firearm injury, although the study found that these shootings only occurred 22% of the time.

"This skews our focus toward things like active shooter drills in schools, and away from the kind of community investment that we need to prevent the forms of gun violence that are so much more common," Kaufman said.