Write For Our Lives: How will we report on gun violence in 2030?
It’s 2030, and the future of journalism is devoid of “infotainment pieces” on the tragedies of gun violence. Twenty-year-old Parkland survivor and co-founder of March For Our Lives Ryan Deitsch says,“I think in 2030 the coverage of gun violence will be very different. I think it will be more empathetic because we will have a new generation of journalists--many who have experienced these tragedies, and if they haven’t, they know people who have.” Deitsch and other anti-gun activists have a lot of complaints about how guns and violence are covered in the media nowadays. Activists’ voices, collaborative efforts and new technology can transform reporting on these issues.
In the current media environment, gun violence stories often turn into sensational pieces on how could something like this happen… again and again. Deitsch remembers feeling betrayed by how the media reported on his experience. “Footage that I had taken on February 14th during the evacuation of the Majorie Stoneman Douglass shooting was severely edited by Al Jazeera against my consent... They added gunshots over my footage. They added screaming. And it was absolutely insulting.” Deitsch is still waiting for a formal apology from the producers.
Another change in reporting endorsed by gun violence prevention groups including March For Our Lives is following the recommendations of the #NoNotoriety movement. Tom and Caren Teves, who lost their son Alex during a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, started this campaign to urge media outlets to make the choice not to provide information on perpetrators of mass shootings as a way to frustrate shooters wish for infamy.
The media’s obsession with criminals has contributed to the idolization of perpetrators of mass shootings. An interview by the FBI with a woman who met Adam Lanza through a shared interest in the Columbine Massacre found that Lanza "was singularly focused and obsessed with mass murders... Lanza devoted almost all his internet activity to researching and discussing mass murders and spree killings." The media spotlight on perpetrators has even led to a subculture called the “True Crime Community.” In an interview with the Daily Beast, Dave Cullen, journalist and acclaimed author of books on the Parkland and Columbine shootings, described the subculture as “boys wanting to emulate the killers, like ‘I’m the tough guy, I’m gonna kill people’ and the girls more frequently wanting to be the killers’ girlfriends.”
Media outlets are hyperfocused on being the first to report the number of fatalities in cases of gun violence. This can lead to desensitization because black-and-white statistics aren’t reflective of the individual nature of these tragedies. Similarly, according to Jeremy Bernfeld, the Director of Guns & America, a collaborative project by various public radio stations to report the nuances of gun related issues, “So often gun issues are painted as binary, red vs. blue. But that does a disservice to the people who care about gun issues and who are impacted by gun violence.” He says that “Solving the problem of gun violence will take complicated, multi-faceted solutions--and different methods for different issues.”
The website for Guns & America splits stories into five categories: Culture & Community, The Gun Economy, Mental Health, Rights & Regulation and Violence & Enforcement. Bernfeld explains, “We say that we cover the role of guns in American life -- the broad array of ways that Americans interact with guns. That means we cover the fallout from the latest mass shooting; the debate over gun regulation; the cultural role of hunting and sport shooting in rural America and more. ” By pursuing stories from a variety of perspectives and with reporters embedded in diverse communities, the project is a fresh and complex take on how gun violence can be covered.
Another development that could alter reporting on gun violence is the use of new technology. With virtual reality tools, individuals who may not have been directly impacted by gun violence could learn to become more empathetic, something Deitsch says is key. “We can’t really empathize with each other if we are continually submitting ourselves to these rabbit holes that we get stuck in.” As more media outlets like the New York Times embrace virtual reality, audiences will be able to experience the harsh reality of victims of gun violence.
Nineteen year-old Stefan Sujansky, a sophomore at Georgetown University and Political Affairs Director of Georgetown University’s chapter of March For Our Lives supports this use of technology. When discussing the issue of guns’ involvement in police brutality, Sujansky said that virtual reality could prepare people for situations where they might be confronted by the police and give law enforcement members a sense of what it is like to be in civilians’ shoes. “There is a lot of strain and anxiety in the relationship between police and certain communities. Virtual reality could be one of those areas--especially for police officers--for people to learn about those dynamics.” Virtual reality could also help adults who didn’t grow up in the age of lockdown drills in classrooms to experience what younger generations’ school experiences were.
As young journalists step into the field, what will they bring? This group is part of the mass shooting generation. They have grown up with paper covering the windows in their classroom doors, lockdown drills, and a fear of finding their school’s name in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Bernfeld states, “Gun issues are like most of the other thorniest challenges we face--difficult, nuanced, multi-layered.” Using technology, future journalists will have to take up this essential challenge to meet the needs of a more demanding audience.