The Media Accountability Project

This research project, which began in 2023, is a partnership between CORNERS and Northwestern University linguistics professor Rob Voigt. The study aims to quantitatively examine racial disparities in media depictions of incidents of gun violence using a computational, big-data approach.

The research project goals are as follows:

1. To create a comprehensive analysis of the unequal media portrayal of gun violence victims in media markets in 10 cities nationwide, with a heavy emphasis on the Midwest
2. To begin working with news outlets, journalists, educators, and community stakeholders to build a new and more accurate narrative on gun violence.

This project utilizes an extensive data linking effort between The Gun Violence Archive - the most comprehensive available record of gun violence incidents - and large digital archives of print and television media to answer large-scale questions about the media landscape of gun violence.