Quick take: On news organizations and gun violence prevention

We sent an email invitation to participate in this anonymous survey to everyone who registered for our recent Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit. So far, we have received 66 responses.

We asked attendees about the role of news organizations in gun violence prevention:

Please rate your confidence in the following statements on a scale of 1-10:

News organizations have a responsibility to help prevent community gun violence.

Average response: 8.6

News organizations have the ability to help prevent community gun violence.

Average response: 7.7

News organizations care about preventing community gun violence.

Average response: 6.45

News organizations have been effective at preventing community gun violence.

Average response: 4.1


We were also looking for feedback on the summit and the reviews were good:

Did you learn something new and important that will inform your work?

Yes: 66 (100%)

Would you be likely to attend our events in the future?

Yes: 64 (97%)

Please rate your overall experience at the summit on a scale of 1-10:

Average response: 9.2

Please rate the overall quality of information delivered during the summit:

Average response: 8.9

If you attended and didn’t get the survey link but would like to participate, please send us your email address, via: ibgvr.org/contact/

We plan to produce more extensive surveys in the future and deliver more significant research findings from all of our events. Discussions about future event are just getting underway.


What if changing the way journalists report on gun violence could prevent shootings and save lives?

The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting has been created to inform a new set of best practices for journalists reporting on gun violence and to explore the hypothesis that changing the way this issue is covered could prevent shooting incidents and save lives.

And we have good reason to believe this work will make a difference.

Here’s what you can do: