Welcome to Gun Country
By: John Philp
Tags: Engagement, Gun Violence, Gun Country, Guns

I’m an engagement journalist working on the issue of gun violence. What I’ve learned may help other reporters and advocates.

By John Philp

December 13, 2020

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Vertina Brown’s only child Tiarah was shot dead at the age of 22, according to Vertina, “just for saying no to advances for a dance”.

It was early on September 5, 2016 during J’Ouvert, a boisterous annual street party and parade that celebrates Caribbean culture. Tiarah was walking with friends along the parade route near Prospect Park in Brooklyn when a young man began grinding against her. When Tiarah rebuffed his advances, he shot her in the face. Tiarah’s last reported words were “get off me”.

Vertina Brown holds a photo of her daughter Tiarah Poyau, who was shot dead during a festival in Brooklyn in 2016.

Vertina is one of hundreds of thousands of people across the United States whose lives have been upended by gun violence. Even four years after her daughter’s death, guns are still a constant, unsettling presence in Vertina’s life. Since the pandemic began, she said she hears gunshots almost every night in her neighborhood of Canarsie. And it’s left her on edge.

“This is a crazy world we live in right now. Anything can happen,” Vertina said.

More than 100 Americans die every day from guns. Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. The United States has a homicide rate 25 times that of other high-income countries, with women and minorities making up a disproportionate amount of deaths.

An Engagement Journalism Approach to Gun Violence Reporting

I’m an engagement journalist, meaning I combine the skills of traditional reporting with the power of community engagement, in order to serve the people I’m writing about.

My goal is to serve the gun safety community, made up of survivors, their families and other advocates who are working to reduce America’s gun deaths.

Gun control activists attend a rally at the Florida State Capitol building on February 21, 2018 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

To do that I created Gun Country, an ongoing, multi-format online project that tries to reboot the conversation about guns in America. Gun Country weaves together news, storytelling, dialog and advocacy, to explore the hold guns have on us, and to amplify efforts to reduce gun violence.

Gun Country grew out of what I felt was a storytelling gap. We talk a lot about guns, but we never get close to resolving many of the biggest issues, such as who should or shouldn’t have a gun, and how should gun ownership be regulated?

This storytelling gap is partly the result of a larger cultural divide. Americans’ attitudes toward guns often stand in for the way we feel about a range of other issues, from our ethical obligations to one another to our country’s standing in the world. These attitudes fall along starkly predictable lines. Whether or not someone owns a gun has become the most powerful predictor of a person’s political affiliations, more than gender, sexual identity, race or geography.

The gun debate too often ends up in tribal bickering or political grandstanding. That might be an advantage if you sell guns for a living; sales typically spike when people are at each other’s throats.

Some outlets offer excellent reporting about guns, The Trace being the most high-profile. But the majority of people are relying instead on the mainstream media, where coverage of guns is often cursory and superficial.

“They get a lot of the information wrong,” said Shenee Johnson, whose 17-year-old son Kedrick Morrow was shot and killed in 2010. “When I’m sitting right there with them. I’m telling them exactly what happened, you know?”

Shenee Johnson, with a photo of her son, Kedrick Morrow, who was killed in 2010. (Heather Walsh for The New York Times.)

Inadequate reporting adds to the general apathy around gun violence. Despite its numbing toll, gun violence is still not perceived as a major issue by most Americans.

I saw an opportunity here, to build a project that could reboot the gun debate for the widest possible audience. Using engagement journalism techniques, I’ve tried to build a bridge between my immediate community and a wider audience. The eventual goal is a one-stop shop that appeals as much to gun owners, advocates and pro-gun legislators as it does to members of the gun safety movement.

A far-right protestor faces off with a leftist counter-protester in the city of Stone Mountain, GA on August 15, 2020. (Photo: Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

That means looking for common ground. And it exists. For too long the gun lobby, with the support of the firearms industry, has defined the gun debate in divisive, apocalyptic terms. But gun owners are far from monolithic. Many of them reject the gun lobby’s harsh rhetoric, and agree with non-gun owners on a wide range of safety initiatives, such as red flag laws, background checks and gun licensing.

Gun Country provides what has so far been missing; a well-informed experience that takes in all perspectives, across a range of formats, and promotes dialog between people that don’t typically engage one another. It was built for the gun safety community, but aimed at a much wider constituency. After all, if we are to stem the bleeding in America, we need everyone at the table. As Vertina Brown put it, “everyone deserves for their opinion to be heard.”

If I Build It, Will They Come?

Before I began building a new information ecosystem, I had to ensure it was something my community felt had value. For the engagement journalist a project may not be worth pursuing if it doesn’t meet a community’s need. After sending out a series of surveys, texts and social media blasts, I became convinced my community was looking for something new.

I did feel confident I was the right person to spearhead a new look at gun violence. I’ve been deeply invested in this issue since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. My children were around the same ages as the 20 young kids that were killed that day. The revulsion we felt pushed my whole family into advocacy. I joined the gun safety group Moms Demand Action, founded a Dads Chapter, and ran it for four years.

The author as an advocate. HIs children have joined him in advocacy. (Courtesy John Philp.)

I’d also grown up in Australia, a country that had successfully bent the curve on gun violence, through smart laws that were adopted after almost two decades of devastating gun crimes. I knew America didn’t have to suffer like this.

A Moving Target.

So, I was the right guy, with the right idea; to build some useful, newsy thing about guns. But it took a while to decide what that would be.

My initial plan was to make a podcast. I’d been developing Half-Cocked, a dark comedy series about a self-assured gun lobbyist whose relationship with a Congresswoman whose son has been shot dead threatens to topple the entire gun industry.

Half-Cocked employs an unusual hybrid structure. Running parallel to the fictional story is factual commentary from real players in the gun debate, such as journalists, students and gun owners. The fiction strand brings together the unlikeliest couple, from the farthest ends of the ideological spectrum, to dramatize complex ideas and emotions. The factual strand gives the story a visceral, experiential edge. It melds the gravitas of documentary with the savagery of satire.

Producing a blue-chip podcast in a pandemic, alone, would be difficult, and perhaps not even wise. Instead, I made a trailer that lives on the Gun Country site, and that I used to elicit feedback, which helped refine the podcast. I created another survey and sent it out via email, text and Facebook to a subset of people who’d responded to my first survey. Follow-up surveys have another advantage; they reconnect me with the most engaged members of my community, leading to deeper trust and more meaningful interactions.

I knew the hybrid approach was risky, and I got some pushback from users and fellow journalists. But of the 14 community members who took the survey, the responses have been almost uniformly positive, and indicate my audience is receptive to new storytelling ideas. But by then I’d already decided I wanted to provide new and different content. I’d begun thinking about a full-service website that could encompass the podcast and much more.

This expanding scope was fueled by skills I was learning in my classes at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and informed by feedback from my community. I had learned how to create a Voice Record feature for websites, so I added that to my site. Now users can leave me a voice message, which may even be used in subsequent episodes of the podcast. I also learned how to embed a News Aggregation feature, and added that as well. In the near future I’ll be building a bot that gives users actionable data they can use to shame, prod or support their elected officials.

Making an Impact.

I know from personal interaction with my users that the site has had a meaningful impact. Gun Country is giving people a voice, and allowing them to discuss an issue or aspect of the gun debate they care deeply about.

Vertina Brown and her late daughter, Tiarah Poyau.

Vertina Brown’s daughter Tiarah Poyau was shot to death in 2016 at the J’Ouvert festival in Brooklyn. Four years after her daughter’s death, Vertina told me she struggles to keep her daughter’s story in the public eye. “To truly, really get everything out there, something else has to be done. So I’m really glad that you’re doing this,” she told me.

I’m proud of the fact I now often get suggestions from users asking for specific services or content. One user wants me to provide gun violence statistics that update automatically on the site. I had already considered building a bot to do this, but this interaction confirms it would have an impact. The site also features a video gallery, and I get a number of suggestions asking for tailored video content on specific or little-known aspects of the gun debate. This back and forth gives a sense of how my project has evolved from a simple podcast episode into a multi-format hub for the gun debate in America.

“Thank you for all your work/help in creating ways to inform communities of the dangers of gun violence.” — Vertina Brown, mother of shooting victim Tiarah Poyau

A Hopefully Handy Guide for Others.

I came to the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY because I wanted a Masters in Engagement Journalism, a degree built on in-demand skills such as impact reporting, audience engagement, social news gathering, design thinking and analytics, among others. (CUNY faculty have proposed to change the program’s name from “Social Journalism” to “Engagement Journalism”, but that change is not yet reflected on the website.)

Engagement journalism was the perfect way to bring together two clear but divergent strands that had developed in my life, my relatively straightforward journalistic career, and my advocacy for gun violence prevention.

I believe Gun Country provides my community with solid, well-reported material that is of real use to them. But it’s also a personally satisfying project for me, a cohesion of mission and messenger.

Photo-illustration by TIME.

This journey has taught me an enormous amount, and I want to share just a little of what I’ve learned. Not because I have any special talent or insight, but because I’ve been there. And explaining what I now know could make someone else’s journey easier. So here goes.

You probably know more than you think you do . And you can fake the rest, so just get on with it! I was hesitant about much of this process. Would the podcast interest anyone? Did I have the technical chops? Did I have enough perspective? In reality, my community is grateful for any service I can offer, and more than willing to help me to make it better.

. And you can fake the rest, so just get on with it! I was hesitant about much of this process. Would the podcast interest anyone? Did I have the technical chops? Did I have enough perspective? In reality, my community is grateful for any service I can offer, and more than willing to help me to make it better. Expect pushback. Especially if you’re contemplating balancing fact and fiction, know that some journalists and audience members aren’t thrilled by that idea. Be prepared to defend your choices. Practice how to explain why this is the right format for the work you are proposing.

Especially if you’re contemplating balancing fact and fiction, know that some journalists and audience members aren’t thrilled by that idea. Be prepared to defend your choices. Practice how to explain why this is the right format for the work you are proposing. Resist Impostor Syndrome . If you’re unsure you’re the right person to tell a community’s story, ask the opposite question; why not me? Who better to tell this story, this way, at this time? The answer is, there is no-one better!

. If you’re unsure you’re the right person to tell a community’s story, ask the opposite question; why not me? Who better to tell this story, this way, at this time? The answer is, there is no-one better! Covid-19 makes everything harder. This one might seem obvious, but if the pandemic continues, make sure you have as many ways to connect with your community at a distance as possible. In my case, that meant attending gun-related zooms, and continuing to do advocacy work.

This one might seem obvious, but if the pandemic continues, make sure you have as many ways to connect with your community at a distance as possible. In my case, that meant attending gun-related zooms, and continuing to do advocacy work. Leave lots of breadcrumbs. With an ongoing project, try to have material you can put out consistently, as audiences tend to go cold quickly. In my case, I built a news feature that regularly sends out curated material. For fictionalized or hybrid material, consider doing a piece, then showing your audience, then doing the next piece.

With an ongoing project, try to have material you can put out consistently, as audiences tend to go cold quickly. In my case, I built a news feature that regularly sends out curated material. For fictionalized or hybrid material, consider doing a piece, then showing your audience, then doing the next piece. Getting buy-in takes time. Even amongst a community that trusts you, honest feedback comes slowly. Just because you’re offering a service, don’t assume you’ll always get people’s attention, especially during a pandemic.

Even amongst a community that trusts you, honest feedback comes slowly. Just because you’re offering a service, don’t assume you’ll always get people’s attention, especially during a pandemic. Get the language right. The language around complex issues such as guns, abortion and immigration tends to be very nuanced and coded. For instance, many gun owners speak about owning a gun for “security”, rather than “self-defense”. The difference is meaningful.

The language around complex issues such as guns, abortion and immigration tends to be very nuanced and coded. For instance, many gun owners speak about owning a gun for “security”, rather than “self-defense”. The difference is meaningful. Show up. Many people in afflicted communities have been burned by journalists before, so they value face-to-face interaction, in order to know who they’re dealing with. Try to make the time for all those Zooms!

I hope these tips are helpful. In the meantime, please visit the Gun Country site. I look forward to having you be a part of this important conversation.