# Examining disparities in harmful reporting on community firearm violence in Philadelphia television news reports

## TL;DR

This study examines how local TV news in Philadelphia reports on community firearm violence and finds harmful patterns that may worsen health inequities.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel codebook to quantify harmful reporting and identifies disparities in how different victims and locations are portrayed.

## Key findings

- Episodic framing was the most common harmful element in news coverage of community firearm violence.
- Black victims and those in areas with higher Black populations were more likely to be shown in graphic or explicit content.
- Victims with multiple news clips or longer coverage had higher harmful reporting scores.

## Abstract

News coverage of community firearm violence (CFV) can cause multilevel harm. We aimed to quantify the frequency and severity of harmful CFV news content and examine how victim, shooting event, and place-based characteristics relate to harmful CFV reporting.

We performed a quantitative media content analysis of a random sample of CFV clips aired on Philadelphia local television news in 2021 using a novel codebook. We matched clips to shooting victims in the Philadelphia Police Department dataset and used shooting event location to obtain place-based characteristics from American Community Survey data. Generalized structural equation models evaluated associations between victim demographics, shooting event, and place-based characteristics (Group I), news coverage characteristics (Group II), and either composite harmful CFV reporting scores or specific harmful reporting elements determined by a prior modified Delphi process (Group III).

Among 394 individuals covered in 303 clips, the mean (SD) individual-level harmful CFV reporting score was 15.2 (4.38) out of 29. Episodic framing (i.e. reporting lacking systematic context) (93.9%) was the most common harmful content element and perpetrator mugshot (4.8%) was least common element. Graphic and/or explicit content was present in 30.3% of clips. Individuals having more than one clip and longer total focus time had higher harmful reporting scores, while individuals involved in fatal shootings, having longer total clip length, and having a follow-up story had lower scores. Black, adult, victims in non-fatal shootings and people shot in areas with a higher proportion of Black residents were more likely to have news coverage containing graphic and/or explicit content.

Harmful CFV reporting is pervasive, and the severity of harm is associated with news coverage characteristics. Disparities in specific harmful CFV content elements may further exacerbate existing health inequities. Journalists should modify CFV reporting practices to minimize harm.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40621-026-00659-4.