When completed properly, storytelling brings sterile information to life. However tales will also be informed in ways in which ignore information and perpetuate dangerous myths. And with regards to gun violence, the tales that loom largest threaten the hard-fought progress made lately on this challenge.
Weve all heard the traditional, every-man-for-himself saying, When seconds rely and the police are minutes away. These 9 phrases are as memorable as they’re emblematic of Individuals views on firearmswhen polled by the Pew Analysis Middle in July 2023, safety was the primary cause folks determine to get a gun. In actuality nevertheless, a gun at house makes households much less safenot safer. Wielding the household gun to cease an armed intruder? Unlikely. A family gun used to kill the gun proprietor or their family members? Way more probably. However the latter story has much less of a likelihood to be proven in fashionable leisure.
To cut back gun violence, the tales we inform about weapons needs to be based mostly on whats true: More often than not, the presence of a gun makes folks much less protected.
Watch: Sol within the Backyard, a Brief Documentary concerning the Energy of Nature in Therapeutic
Extra From TIME
Because the narrative of the great man with a gun took maintain, public opinion about weapons shifted. Within the early 2000s, most individuals believed that having a gun made them much less protected and family gun possession was on the decline. By 2018, almost 6 in 10 Individuals believed the parable that having a gun would make them safer.
Its probably that an more and more ferocious gun trade and its lobbying teams performed a job on this shift, as did an increase in public mass shootings. Its additionally true that theres extra gun violence in popular culture now than there was 20 years in the past. One 2021 research within the analysis journal PLOS One checked out how commonly prime time dramas depicted gun violence in 2000 versus 2018 and located that scenes that includes gun violence had doubled.
Whatever the trigger, the information across the impact is kind of clear. As extra folks started to consider the parable that weapons made them safer and selected to buy firearms to deal with their fears, charges of gun violence elevated too. Extra weapons make us much less protected.
Whether or not its native information or a beloved television sequence or documentary, the tales we inform about weapons and gun violence impression peoples views on the topic. Final yr, the gun violence prevention group I based, Challenge Unloaded, surveyed 1,000 members of Gen Z and requested them how they realized about weapons. Most younger folks identify household and buddies as their fundamental supply for details about weapons, however greater than half of the younger folks polled cited tv and movie as a supply of knowledge. The affect of tv and movie is especially sturdy for younger Black folks, who’re disproportionately impacted by gun violence. Black kids are greater than 17 occasions as more likely to die in a capturing as a white little one of the identical age based on CDC information.
If decreasing gun violence is the purpose, the trail ahead should embody taking a cautious take a look at the tales we inform and the messages they sendparticularly to younger folks, who’re nonetheless making up their minds about whether or not or not theyll personal a gun.
Watch: Home of Tulip, a Brief Documentary Concerning the Risks of Being Trans in America
A 2021 report produced by Sundance Institute and the Kendeda Fund presents methods filmmakers can take to provide tales related to our nations gun violence disaster which might be each compelling and efficient at driving change. Some documentaries are already placing its suggestions to work. However because the report highlights, we shouldnt count on each venture to enchantment to each personand in truth, we usually tend to persuade and shift tradition once we tailor our outputs.
At Challenge Unloaded, we focus our efforts on reaching younger folks with fact-based narratives about weapons earlier than theyve made up their minds on the subject. We primarily work via social media campaigns on platforms like Snapchat and TikTok. On these platforms, we companion with Gen Z influencers to share the information about how weapons make us much less protected with out the partisan, polarized debate that usually comes with speaking about weapons. To this point, our outcomes point out this method is working. Weve reached over 3 million younger folks with our Safer Not Utilizing Weapons (SNUG) marketing campaign.
Challenge Unloaded additionally runs neighborhood companion applications in choose cities. Along with Chicago Public Colleges, final summer time, we labored with 50 highschool college students from a few of the neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence. We confirmed college students the information on how weapons make them much less protected and introduced in advertising and marketing consultants to assist the kids craft their very own social media campaigns that would attain their friends with that message. Nearly all of the contributors had a private expertise with gun violence, and initially of this system most stated they had been contemplating gun possession.
One younger girl, whose brother was shot to loss of life and whose father is behind bars, expressed skepticism she was positive that nobody cared what she thought, and that gun violence couldnt be stopped. By the conclusion of this system, she informed us that wed helped her see how she and her friends could possibly be a part of the answer, and the proportion of scholars who stated they had been undoubtedly or in all probability getting a gun fell by greater than 20 factors.
Adults are unlikely to shift their espresso order, not to mention their views on a subject like weapons after so a few years of publicity to highly effective but false narratives round weapons and security. However younger persons are open to contemplating the information on this challenge and altering their minds consequently. In our 2022 survey, 17% of younger folks shifted away from the idea that weapons made them safer after publicity to easy fact-based messages about gun dangers.
In that discovering is the trail ahead: human-centered, data-backed tales about gun violence can shift views and behaviors round weapons and ultimately, save lives.
To some, a 17% shift in views might sound small. However we shouldnt count on one set of information, or anyone piece of media to resonate with everybody who sees it. Fortunately, tradition change doesnt require that. It solely requires {that a} message stays with sufficient of its viewers that the message can then unfold organically via peer-to-peer dialog. Thats how teen use of cigarettes dropped by 20 factors in 20 years. The same shift can occur on weapons.
The extra we will use inventive outputs corresponding to visible artwork, movie, and even social media campaigns to unfold the message that weapons make us much less protected, the safer all of us will ultimately be. With data-based work and considerate, humanistic storytelling, we will change the narrative on weapons and eventually sluggish our nations gun violence epidemic.
