A Temple-led study finds that how television news reports violence can shape trauma, fear and inequality in the communities most affected.

Philadelphia has seen encouraging signs of progress in reducing gun violence, according to recent homicide data from the Philadelphia Police Department. But even as incidents decline, researchers say another factor deserves attention: how the news media covers those shootings and whether certain forms of reporting can cause harm to the communities most affected. 

That concern is at the center of a new study led by Jessica Beard, associate professor of surgery at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, part of the National Institutes of Health, the research examines how local television news in Philadelphia covers community firearm violence and identifies specific ways that coverage can be harmful to survivors, families and entire neighborhoods.

Their conclusion was clear: Harmful reporting is common and it is not evenly distributed.

“The news doesn’t just reflect what happens in a community,” Beard said. “It shapes how people understand it and how they understand the people who live there.”

In the study, Beard and a multidisciplinary research team developed a new measurement tool, or codebook, to define and evaluate harmful reporting. The tool was designed in collaboration with Jennifer Midberry, associate professor of journalism at Temple’s Klein College of Media and Communication and a co-investigator on the study. Researchers used it to analyze more than 300 news clips from Philadelphia’s four major broadcast stations in 2021, covering 394 individuals injured in shootings. They then matched those clips with city data on victims, incidents and neighborhood characteristics.

Their goal was not to evaluate individual journalists, but to systematically measure patterns in coverage that can contribute to trauma, stigma and fear.

To do that, the team first worked with people who have lived experience of gun violence, along with journalists and media scholars, to define what harmful reporting actually looks like. In a prior Delphi consensus study, a structured method that gathers repeated expert input until agreement is reached, they identified specific elements that can make coverage harmful—from graphic imagery to missing community perspectives. 

The most prevalent pattern was what researchers call episodic framing, a form of reporting that focuses narrowly on a single shooting incident, often told from the perspective of police, with little context about causes, prevention or community impact. 

Nearly 91% of stories did not include the perspective of the person who was shot. 

The study does not argue for less reporting on gun violence. Instead of episodic crime coverage, Beard and her colleagues are calling for a shift toward a public health approach to reporting. That means providing context about patterns and prevention, including voices beyond law enforcement and avoiding trauma-triggering visuals.

“When reporting only tells viewers that ‘a man was shot,’ without context or humanity, people begin to feel interchangeable,” Beard said. “It makes individuals and communities feel unimportant and even disposable.” 

In earlier research, Beard and her colleagues interviewed Temple trauma patients about how news coverage affected them. Survivors described feeling dehumanized by the way their injuries were reported and worried about how others interpreted those brief, police-centered narratives. 

One patient told Beard he wished the news had described him as an “innocent man shot.” At the time, he had been walking to the dentist when the shooting happened. 

“I’m not saying that the word ‘innocent’ is simple,” Beard said. “But what he was describing was the feeling of being judged without anyone knowing him.” 

The consequences extend beyond individuals. When violence is presented only as isolated crime, Beard said, audiences are left with fear but little understanding. 

“If you are watching TV news and you don’t see context, you don’t see root causes, you don’t see solutions—it feels hopeless,” she said. “You don’t know what to ask for. You don’t know how to be part of prevention.” 

Residents interviewed in prior research described increased anxiety, social withdrawal and a growing sense that carrying a firearm might be necessary for protection. 

“People told us, ‘You’re making us more fearful,’” Beard said. “And fear changes behavior.” 

But the harm extended beyond individual fear.

Black adult victims in nonfatal shootings and people injured in neighborhoods with higher proportions of Black residents were more likely to appear in news reports containing graphic or explicit content, a racial disparity researchers identified as one of the study’s most striking findings.

The analysis also showed that graphic imagery, while not the most common reporting element, was among the most harmful.

“Graphic and explicit content should not be in news reporting,” Beard said. “It doesn’t increase empathy in the way journalists may hope it does.”

For Beard, the disparity reflects deeper structural inequities in whose suffering is treated with care and whose is not.

“Certain victims are treated as worthy of dignity and protection,” she said. “Others are not.” 

Addressing those inequities, she said, requires rethinking not only how violence is reported but how communities respond to it.

“Gun violence is preventable,” Beard said. “Reporting should help people understand why it happens and what works to stop it.” 

The work reflects a collaboration across Temple University, linking trauma surgery, journalism and public health, and connects directly to Temple’s role in North Philadelphia. Through hospital-based violence intervention programs and community partnerships, the university is actively working to prevent violence, efforts Beard believes deserve more visibility in public storytelling. 

Beyond her academic research, Beard serves as director of research for the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting (PCGVR), which trains journalists in more contextual approaches to coverage and helps translate research into practice. She is also a Stoneleigh Foundation Fellow, working to advance change in the systems that serve young people.

Looking ahead, Beard hopes to expand the study to cities across the country, educate more journalists and examine how audiences respond to more explanatory reporting. But that work depends on funding and ongoing attention in a news cycle that quickly shifts from one issue to the next. 

“We don’t do research to put it in a journal and close the door,” Beard said. “We do it because we want practice to change.”