The Media as Part of the Solution
The recent success of the
Designated Driver Campaign also suggests that the mass media can play a role in
disseminating strategies to combat violence beyond the usual informational or
hortatory approaches characteristic of advocacy campaigns. The Harvard group
marketed its particular "product" in part by using standard advertising
techniques, targeting specific audiences with well-timed and strategically
placed public service announcements. However, they also sought to model
normative behavior through entertainment programming by convincing producers
and writers to embed appropriate references to the designated driver in
dialogue. This strategy worked because the message was simple, believable, and
acceptable. Might a similar strategy help change social norms about gun
ownership, or model behavior that effectively avoids violent confrontations?
It is still too early to tell how the "information highway" and the
proliferation of alternative media ultimately will affect public opinion, the
evolution of public judgment, or the development of public policy. Pertschuk
notes that computer networks are already bringing otherwise-fragmented
constituencies together around particular causes or issues. Antismoking
advocates communicate in this way, sharing information and ideas; so do gun
owners. Cable and other alternative commercial media outlets may also make it
easier to target particular audiences with particular messages. Yet the sheer
number and variety of informational and entertainment media weaken the
influence of any single source. As Fullilove observes, nonmainstream groups in
the population have always had their own invisible, alternative sources of
information. As these proliferate, the task of mobilizing public opinion may
actually become harder.
The public's effort to understand the issues surrounding violence or to develop
appropriate strategies to combat it is not likely to be helped very much by
business as usual: the traditional news media following the conventional rules
of journalism. Pertschuk points out that reporters still cite spokespersons
from the Tobacco Institute (ostensibly for the sake of "balance"), creating an
exaggerated impression of scientific controversy about the health hazards of
smoking. Media coverage of gun control usually boils down to a simplistic
dualism, positing the NRA and its opposition to any and all regulation on one
side of the issue and those who advocate a total ban on handguns on the other.
Rosenberg points out, however, that most people's views on the subject,
including those of NRA members, fall somewhere in the middle. "We need that 90
percent to be engaged. That middle 90 percent does not want to be engaged in a
discussion with zealots," asserts Rosenberg.
How, then, do we focus public attention on centrist strategies that are more
likely to attract broader support? Yankelovich believes that the mass media
have the potential to serve as a public forum that can hasten the evolution of
public judgment on this issue--a process that literally took decades, in the
cases of smoking and drunk driving. Michael Janeway, Dean of the Medill School
of Journalism at Northwestern University, sees promising signs in the movement
toward media-sponsored "town meetings" and roundtable discussions. Candidate
Bill Clinton's effective use of nontraditional television--such as MTV, talk
shows, and call-in shows--further challenged the dominance of network news and
helped broaden public discussion of campaign issues. "Any forum that permits
journalists to hear the public voice in a patient way and engage in a genuine
dialogue has to help," Yankelovich comments.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified several
potential strategies for reducing gun violence--none of which entails a total
ban on guns. One approach would focus on behavior, developing methods for
changing the behavior of people who have guns. Another would look for ways to
make the environment safer, such as by creating "safe havens" or safe routes
for children. Still other strategies would focus on guns themselves--changing
the way they are used or stored, controlling who has access to guns through
licensing restrictions or other measures, making firearms less lethal, or
reducing the overall supply of firearms through buy-back programs, restrictions
on imports, or other methods.
What is most likely to have an effect, Rosenberg emphasizes, is a multifaceted
approach: "It wasn't just getting drunk drivers off the road that reduced
motor vehicle deaths, but it was making cars safer with air bags and seat belts
and front ends that collapse; it was regulating people with stricter licensing
requirements, and it was building safer roads. There's no one thing that's
going to work. We need multiple interventions, many things at the same time."
"For every half hour o television [news], you have 23 minutes of programming and
seven minutes of commercials. And in that 23 minutes, if it weren't for the
weater and the sports, you would not have any positive news. As for putting in
even six minutes of hope, of pride, of dignity -- it doesn't sell."
Edward James Olmos
Actor, Director, and Producer
