Reporting on Mass Shootings: An Analysis of Journalists’ Perceptions of Mass Shooting Coverage and the Impact it has on their Professional Work and Personal Lives

Abstract

In nearly 10 years the number of deaths from mass shootings in the United States has more than tripled, with the number of individuals killed rising from 160 people (2000-2009) to 512 people (2010-2019) (Follman et al., 2020; Wilson, 2019). Mass shootings, thus, have occurred with such regularity that the field of journalism needs to re-evaluate this type of coverage and the impacts it has on news gatherers, producers, and others in the field. This exploratory study (November 20, 2019 to February 19, 2020) sought to analyze journalists’ perceptions of the coverage of mass shootings and the effects it has had on their professional work and personal lives. An 18-item questionnaire was completed by 33 journalists from various platforms who had covered 11 different mass shootings. Using firsthand accounts from in-depth semi-structured interviews, the findings demonstrate that journalists have many concerns about the coverage of mass shootings related to not having planning and protocols to reduce occupational stress and other means of minimizing the impact of covering traumatic news events. Many participants in the study said that news media organizations could do more to protect their journalists following mass shooting coverage by providing professional resources, such as therapy and counseling, following mass shooting coverage. Coverage of mass shootings largely focused on getting the facts right and providing more coverage of the victims and survivors of these attacks rather than coverage of the shooter/s. Future research should focus on what is being done by newsrooms to combat the trauma that journalists might face following mass shooting coverage.