"Dragnet's" Inaccurate Firearm/Police Representation Addressed by Norman Lear Center

[JamesG]

"Dragnet", Children’s Entertainment Highlighted in New USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center Gun Safety Study and Guide
by Abbey White, Lexy Perez
May 23, 2023


The real-world impact of firearm representation in police programming like "Dragnet", children’s shows and in storylines that feature women and gun are among the trends explored in a new media guide released by the Hollywood, Health, & Society at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center.

Published Tuesday, Trigger Warning: Gun Guidelines for the Media is a first-of-its-kind resource — a combination of research and suggested approaches to the representation of firearms in news and entertainment media.

The 20-page report not only examines firearm trends in media over the last 20 years, but offers ways for storytellers to “change the narrative, reset the bar and provide representation of safe, acceptable behavior when it comes to firearms,” according to the Norman Lear Center.





The guide features a statistical overview of gun-related murders and deaths by suicide, firearms impacts on children and “officer-involved shootings,” or people killed specifically by police.

It also explores myths around guns and gun violence, before providing stats and findings on safe gun storage, mass and school shootings, and how gun violence is covered on the news, particularly through the lens of race and suicide.





For those working in entertainment, several sections feature representational data and address tropes about firearms in dramas and comedies, kids programming, and women and guns as related to intimate partner violence.

Using findings from research published in 1992 and collected by George Gerbner, founder of the Cultural Indicators project, the guide highlights that an American child has seen “40,000 simulated murders by the age of 18,” with the introduction of cable, streaming and YouTube likely resulting in even more exposure.





The majority of that firearm representation across comedies and dramas comes from police shows. The guide credits the 1960s series "Dragnet" as the source for much of TV’s familiar — and inaccurate — cop tropes onscreen in the decades since the series was released.

Historical portrayals of police also have a tendency to represent authorities as diverse “good guys,” with predominantly white TV “bad guys” getting shot by officers. As the guide highlights, that doesn’t reflect the real-life data, which has found Black Americans are three times more likely to be killed at the hands of law enforcement.

“This inaccurate representation of gun casualties masks and distorts the ways in which shootings by law enforcement disproportionately affect communities of color. In reality, this violence is far from colorblind,” the guide states.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...de-1235497965/