Covering Gun Violence

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Coverage of the Kent State Shootings Through the Eyes of a Young Editor

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Coverage of the Kent State Shootings Through the Eyes of a Young Editor

Robert Giles, former curator of the Nieman Foundation, was managing editor of the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal on May 4, 1970 when four students were killed at Kent State University…

What Could Trauma-Informed Journalism Look Like?

When I hear teachers or soldiers or ministers talk about what they do as a calling, I get it. Though the public may not believe it, journalists carry a similar…
What Journalists Can Do To Report More Effectively — and Compassionately — on Gun Violence

What Journalists Can Do To Report More Effectively — and Compassionately — on Gun Violence

In Philadelphia, being a trauma surgeon means being an expert on what bullets do to bodies.Every night that Dr. Jessica Beard is on call at Temple University Hospital, she treats…
"A mass shooting, only in slow motion"

“A mass shooting, only in slow motion”

Terrence McCoy was rummaging through clips when he came across the story of Kimi Reylander.Reylander, 9, was shot and killed while visiting her great-grandfather’s home in Irondale, Alabama, a small…
How Newsrooms Handle Graphic Images of Violence

How Newsrooms Handle Graphic Images of Violence

Are images of violence and death too distressing to publish—or too important to ignore?

Cultures Clash in Coverage of a School Shooting

Some reporters didn’t understand the implications of tribal sovereignty when they went to the Red Lake Indian Reservation to report this story.

Giving Readers Ways to Heal and to Help in Springfield, Oregon

Mourners at the memorial fence. Photo courtesy of The Register-Guard.May 21, 1998: It became The Day That Changed Everything. It changed everything we took for granted about what it means…

Sensitive Early Reporting Opened Up Good Leads in Edinboro, Pennsylvania

Students show their grief as the procession of slain teacher John Gillette leaves the McComb Field House on the campus of Edinboro University where an open memorial service was held.…

Voicing the Community’s Horror Worked Well in Jonesboro, Arkansas

Tristan McGowan, an injured seventh grader from the Westside Middle School, is pushed from the hospital by his grandfather, Bill McGowaned, after being released from the St. Bernard’s Regional Medical…

The Freedom Forum’s Critique of The Sun’s Reporting on the Westside Shootings

Here are excerpts form the Freedom Forum critique. The Sun covered the story unblinkingly, in the best journalistic sense of that word. It’s coverage not only was thorough and fair…