7. Watch your language

Inaccurate terminology can dilute reader confidence in your reporting.

Adjectives including “gritty” or “urban” can be perceived as racist code words.

Consider the implications of suggesting someone was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Recognize that “police-involved shooting” is sterile official terminology.

To avoid polarization, don’t say “gun control” when you mean “gun violence prevention.”

Some terms may also perpetuate stereotypes. “Extreme risk protection orders” can seem wordier than “red flag laws, but using the latter term can inadvertently assign responsibility to people with mental illness.

If you’re covering gun violence, learn about guns.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the final post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Earn your place in the community

2. Remember who and what is important

3. Recognize the complexity of the topic

4. Disrupt misconceptions

5. Don’t cover; engage!

6. Report with intention

The complete guide will reside here: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

6. Report with intention

Give every story the weight it deserves.

Consider the impact of your reporting. Could it lead to less violence or might it risk inciting more? Be mindful of how the reporting may impact survivors, families, and communities affected by gun violence.

Some families may want you to help solve the crime. Put pressure on the police to do more and bring perpetrators of gun violence to justice.

Learn about the long-term effects of trauma, especially on children.

When possible, involve the local community in the fact-checking process. Better stories happen when working together.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the sixth post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Earn your place in the community

2. Remember who and what is important

3. Recognize the complexity of the topic

4. Disrupt misconceptions

5. Don’t cover; engage!

The complete guide will reside here: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Above: City of Philadelphia Chief Epidemiologist Raynard Washington speaks during the final Summit session titled “Widening the Lens on Gun Violence Reporting in Philadelphia: Perspectives from the Medical, Public Health, and Research Communities.” (Listen)

5. Don’t cover; engage!

Spend time going to events, visiting places of worship and attending support groups. Learn as much as possible about a neighborhood and the people who live there.

Familiar faces can be more comforting to families and communities in grief.

Give people time to grieve before approaching them following an incident of gun violence.

Reach out and encourage communities to participate in the reporting process. Convey how this will result in better reporting and bring more attention to the stories they want told.

When possible, involve the local community in the fact-checking process. Better stories happen when working together.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the fifth post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Earn your place in the community

2. Remember who and what is important

3. Recognize the complexity of the topic

4. Disrupt misconceptions

The complete guide will reside here: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Above: Three prominent Philadelphia journalists addressed questions gathered from women who had lost loved ones to gun violence, in a conversation intended to bring the communities closer together and improve coverage of the issue. Listen to: Coming together: Local journalists and mothers of the fallen

4. Disrupt misconceptions

Knowing what is widely believed but false is important. Provide information to dispute misinformation.

There is little consensus on the definition of a “mass shooting.”

Most gun deaths are suicides. The second highest category of gun-related death is interpersonal violence, and mass shootings ranks third. Surveys show most news consumers think the opposite is true.

Outbreaks of community gun violence can place the same strain on healthcare systems as a mass shooting but seldom receive the same amount of news coverage.

Learn the difference between mental illness and dangerous behaviors. The latter may lead to violence while people with mental illness are more likely to be victims.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the fourth post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Earn your place in the community

2. Remember who and what is important

3. Recognize the complexity of the topic

The complete guide will reside here: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Above: The team from Guns & America presented a session they called “Reporting with Authority: Knowing the Research, Knowing the Vocab.” (Listen)

3. Recognize the complexity of the topic

Complicate the narrative!

Complexity makes people more curious. Try to make people think, rather than telling them what to think.

Balance the need to inform your audience with the goal of minimizing traumatic content. Avoiding sensationalized, shallow, repetitive, episodic reporting is crucial. These reports can spread fear and perpetuate stereotypes.

Recognize that living with complex social, behavioral, economic, and community circumstances can perpetuate violence.

Remember that good people make poor choices.

Facts add richness and hope, but staying current with trends and research takes effort. Know the difference between correlation and causation in research findings, and consider the author’s degree of confidence before endorsing a study.

Reject the idea that anything done to try and stop gun violence is beneficial. When reporting on a response to the problem, consider if the reporting might risk doing more harm than good or if it might create other unintended consequences.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the third post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Earn your place in the community

2. Remember who and what is important

The complete guide will reside here: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Above: The final Summit session was titled: Widening the Lens on Gun Violence Reporting in Philadelphia: Perspectives from the Medical, Public Health, and Research Communities. (Listen.)

2. Remember who and what is important

Put community narratives first. Center stories around victims — and humanize them.

Don’t default to information provided by police officials or anyone else, especially those who wield power or hold a vested self-interest in portraying a particular narrative. Remember that official information isn’t always accurate.

Explore a full spectrum of experts who can shed light on the issue of gun violence, from public health and epidemiology to criminology, communications, and more. Some experts may not have an official title, such as block captains, activists, longtime community members, and impacted families.

Don’t focus on criminal records without a good reason, and don’t judge victims. When victims are young, include the voices and perspectives of young people.

Begin by taking a look in the mirror. Recognize who you are, own your biases, and do the work to unlearn them.


In advance of the Summit, we invited 15 Philadelphia-based journalists to spend a day with 30 residents from the core communities impacted by gun violence in the city. A focus group research team interviewed participants and Prof. Jennifer Midberry presented preliminary findings at the Summit: Communities Affected by Gun Violence: What They Want Journalists to Understand. (Listen.)


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the second post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

Previously in this series: 1. Earn your place in the community

The guide will reside here when complete: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Above: A group of journalism students from Philadelphia’s George Washington Carver High School attended the Summit.

1. Earn your place in the community

Nothing is more clear than the need and responsibility of journalists to do the hard work of earning trust in impacted communities.

Reporters should not simply parachute into neighborhoods with no preexisting relationships, take what is needed, and disappear with no plans to return. Be kind, gentle, and understanding; don’t just think about getting the story.

Get to know people away from community violence. Be present, even when not reporting. Return to the community regularly. Find and share the wonderful things taking place in a neighborhood, outside of the negative. Tell stories of resilience. Create hope.

Respect the community. Remember they don’t know you and they don’t owe the media anything.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence. This is the first post in a series introducing our seven-step guide, based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.

The guide will reside here when complete: Reporting on community gun violence? Here’s what to do

You can learn about the panelists and listen to every session online for free. Visit: The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was organized by Jim MacMillan is his role as a fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Above: The opening panel was titled “Covering Community Gun Violence: How We’re Trying to Do It Better.” We are grateful to the team at The Trace for coordinating this critical session with leading journalists covering gun violence across the nation. (Listen.)

Introduction: Best practices for journalists reporting on community gun violence

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was created to inform a set of best practices specifically intended for journalists reporting on community gun violence and to explore the hypothesis that changing the way this issue is presented can actually reduce violence, prevent shootings and save lives.

Here we will present a concise seven-step guide for approaching the topic based on what we learned during our inaugural Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit last fall at WHYY in Philadelphia.

We have been reviewing everything we learned from the gathering, including transcripts and audio recordings, reporting notes on audience questions and answers, news media coverage, social media feedback, preliminary research findings and follow-up surveys.

Participating experts included journalists who cover gun violence locally and nationally, community representatives with deep firsthand experience, frontline clinicians and researchers from fields including communications, criminology, epidemiology and public health.

Journalists attended from The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, as well as from Chicago, Orlando and Boston, including representatives from The Associated Press, Newsy, SB Nation and newsrooms in smaller cities such as Allentown and Flint. Staffers from most of Philadelphia’s leading news organizations were also present.

The event also attracted educators, students, advocates, first responders, doctors, nurses, medical students, policy makers and other public officials. Nearly 250 people attended.

After releasing the guide, we will turn to implementation, assessment and refinement. So, we want to hear from you!

Please let us know what you thing by clicking Contact link on our home page menu or you can take part in the conversation using our #IBGVR hashtag on Twitter.


The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting was founded by Jim MacMillan, a journalism educator and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former photojournalist, during his fellowship at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.

MacMillan is presently organizing the new Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting at Community College of Philadelphia and the new Credible Messenger Reporting Project, which will recruit and train community members to produce stories from their neighborhoods about the experience of living with gun violence, as well as identifying its root causes and potential solutions.