Mothers in Charge Executive Director and Founder Dorothy Johnson Speight

On Saturday, I was honored to join friends, colleagues and students attending “Murder and the Media,” a lunch and forum hosted by Mothers in Charge, a violence prevention, education and intervention group for youth, young adults, families and community organizations, here in Philadelphia. The forum aimed to examine how the media reports the violence that continues to plague the Philadelphia Region.

Journalists spoke about the stress of covering the many tragic events that make up the daily news in Philadelphia, and the community of bereaved mothers made it clear that accurate, complete and balanced reporting means even more than we might expect to the victims and survivors of gun crime.

Questions planned for discussion included:
• What role does media reporting play in violence reduction? 
• Is there evidence of class or racial bias in victim coverage? 
• How can victims’ families work with the media in seeking appropriate coverage?
 The conversation went in many more directions as well. 

I can’t thank Executive Director and Founder Dorothy Johnson Speight – and her community – enough for having us.

It was a special honor to have a student on the panel from my “Journalism and Psychological Trauma“ course at Temple University.

I would argue, however, that the arrangement was backwards. The mothers should have been at the front of the room; they are the experts and the rest of us are merely the students.

Next, stay tuned for “Faces of Courage,” an upcoming book profiling several members of the organization.