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BMC Public Health

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Open Access 01-12-2024 | Public Health | Research

Public health framing of firearm violence on local television news in Philadelphia, PA, USA: a quantitative content analysis

Authors: Jessica H. Beard, Shannon Trombley, Tia Walker, Leah Roberts, Laura Partain, Jim MacMillan, Jennifer Midberry

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2024

Abstract

Background

Firearm violence is an intensifying public health problem in the United States. News reports shape the way the public and policy makers understand and respond to health threats, including firearm violence. To better understand how firearm violence is communicated to the public, we aimed to determine the extent to which firearm violence is framed as a public health problem on television news and to measure harmful news content as identified by firearm-injured people.

Methods

This is a quantitative content analysis of Philadelphia local television news stories about firearm violence using a database of 7,497 clips. We compiled a stratified sample of clips aired on two randomly selected days/month from January-June 2021 from the database (n = 192 clips). We created a codebook to measure public health frame elements and to assign a harmful content score for each story and then coded the clips. Characteristics of stories containing episodic frames that focus on single shooting events were compared to clips with thematic frames that include broader social context for violence.

Results

Most clips employed episodic frames (79.2%), presented law enforcement officials as primary narrators (50.5%), and included police imagery (79.2%). A total of 433 firearm-injured people were mentioned, with a mean of 2.8 individuals shot included in each story. Most of the firearm-injured people featured in the clips (67.4%) had no personal information presented apart from age and/or gender. The majority of clips (84.4%) contained at least one harmful content element. The mean harmful content score/clip was 2.6. Public health frame elements, including epidemiologic context, root causes, public health narrators and visuals, and solutions were missing from most clips. Thematic stories contained significantly more public health frame elements and less harmful content compared to episodic stories.

Conclusions

Local television news produces limited public health coverage of firearm violence, and harmful content is common. This reporting likely compounds trauma experienced by firearm-injured people and could impede support for effective public health responses to firearm violence. Journalists should work to minimize harmful news content and adopt a public health approach to reporting on firearm violence.

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Title: Public health framing of firearm violence on local television news in Philadelphia, PA, USA: a quantitative content analysis
Authors: Jessica H. Beard
Shannon Trombley
Tia Walker
Leah Roberts
Laura Partain
Jim MacMillan
Jennifer Midberry
Publication date: 01-12-2024
Publisher: BioMed Central
Keyword: Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2024
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18718-0

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Public health framing of firearm violence on local television news in Philadelphia, PA, USA: a quantitative content analysis

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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