Guns returned to TV following strikes, but audiences preferred shows without guns
By:Marc Vicente
Under the second amendment of our Constitution, citizens have the right to bear arms. While this makes it legal to own guns, does owning any really help keep people safe? The people behind Project Unloaded believe otherwise. Founded by Executive Director Nina Vinik in 2022 and led by teen and young adult leaders across the United States, the project is a youth-powered organization that focuses on informing today’s youth about facts on gun safety and ownership through various campaigns and reports.
On October 24, 2024, a press release was uploaded to their website compiling data they have collected from the past year involving the portrayal of guns in media—titled “Gun Smoke.” Bay Area high school students Shiven Patel and Esha Ambre compiled most of the data for this year’s report that documents gun usage in the TV shows from major networks like ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. They watched and coded three years worth of footage about gun depictions in every show that ran in primetime across the four major networks during the last week of September. Afterwards, they coded the type of show, whether a gun was shown and how the gun was used, whether or not it was fired.
Key aspects of their findings from this report include a stagnation in gun portrayal in 2024 similar to norms set in 2022, despite Hollywood having labor strikes that occurred last year. Thirty-three percent more guns were shown on TV this year, but shows without guns actually won 96% of the time slots and proved more popular than those that featured guns.
Read more: https://tricityvoice.com/fremont-teens-work-on-gun-smoke-report/