I'm so excited to help spread the word that on Tuesday, June 26th, 2018, Anthony Campbell is giving an important talk about how pedestrian deaths are reported in the media.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dying-while-walking-interrogating-media-coverage-of-pedestrian-deaths-in-the-united-states-tickets-46860192096
This has been a hot topic in the pedestrian advocacy world as so often the factual details of what occurred are reduced to 1) was the pedestrian in a crosswalk, 2) was the pedestrian wearing dark clothing and 3) was alcohol or drugs involved. He and I both felt strongly there must be a deeper story with these deaths, more complex, and leaning heavily on how people actually live crossed with infrastructure and policy. With this in mind, we started Nashville Pedestrian Death Registry to track these deaths in Nashville.
Now, Anthony, along with Cara Robinson, have developed a talk entitled Dying While Walking: Interrogating Media Coverage of Pedestrian Deaths in the United States. Anthony is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at Tennessee State University, a good friend and my partner at Nashville Pedestrian Death Registry.org. His research focuses on the lived experience of citizen-government relationships and the qualitative dimensions of how humans interact with the built environment. As an avid cyclist, Anthony has first-hand exposure to the importance of a safe transportation infrastructure.
I'm so pleased and proud of the work he is accomplishing and hope you will make time for this interesting talk.
Date and Time
Description
Join us for the presentation, Dying While Walking: Interrogating Media Coverage of Pedestrian Deaths in the United States by Anthony Campbell, PhD and Cara Robinson, PhD of Tennessee State University's College of Public Service (description below).
Bring your own lunch and meet us at the Avon Williams campus of Tennessee State University campus in Training Room #2 from noon to 1pm. See you there!
In recent years, a wide array of policy and technological innovations have been introduced in order to lower individuals’ risk of dying while driving. At the same time, there has been an increased risk of dying while walking. According to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the number of pedestrians killed in the U.S. had the biggest ever single-year increase in 2016 – 5,997 (an 11% increase from 2015). Moreover, there was a nearly 25% increase in the 5-year span from 2012 to 2016. This increase in pedestrian deaths has resulted in public and nonprofit organizations developing strategies to improve pedestrian safety. One of those strategies has been the widespread deployment of educational campaigns to raise awareness about pedestrian deaths and ways to enhance safety. Juxtaposed to these campaigns has been the media’s coverage of pedestrian deaths, which are largely a product of police reports. Given the theoretical models related to the media’s disproportionate impact on public opinions, as well as the media’s and public’s impact on public policy decisions, it is necessary to interrogate how the media impacts the portrayal of pedestrian deaths in the United States. Utilizing media content analysis, and drawing upon media reports (from 2012 to 2016) in five large U.S. cities and one county, this research helps illuminate the role the media plays in constructing the narratives surrounding pedestrian deaths, and ultimately pedestrian safety. These narratives impact urban design and public policy decision-making related to pedestrian infrastructure and public safety. The media’s coverage of pedestrian deaths deserves interrogation, because as Malcom X powerfully avers, “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power.
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