Behind the Stories: How the Sandy Hook shooting changed the way journalists in Connecticut cover guns

In Spring 2018, a team of UConn Jour­nal­ism stu­dents asked four Con­necti­cut jour­nal­ists how the 2012 Sandy Hook Ele­men­tary School shoot­ing changed the way they cov­er gun vio­lence and the gun con­trol debate.

We talked with reporters Jenn Bern­stein and Matthew Kauff­man, edi­to­r­i­al page edi­tor Jacque­line Smith and colum­nist Susan Camp­bell.

Mass shoot­ings had hap­pened in Con­necti­cut before New­town. There was the Con­necti­cut Lot­tery shoot­ing in 1998 and the Hart­ford Dis­trib­u­tors shoot­ing in 2010. But the Sandy Hook school shoot­ing was dif­fer­ent. Twen­ty first graders were mur­dered, along with six edu­ca­tors. One of the teach­ers who died was the daugh­ter of two local journalists.

We want­ed to find out: How is the gun con­trol debate cov­ered in Con­necti­cut? Does our unfor­tu­nate his­to­ry col­or the cov­er­age? What did jour­nal­ists learn from cov­er­ing the tragedy and after­math of Sandy Hook? Plen­ty more mass shoot­ings have occurred since Decem­ber 14, 2012 — Orlan­do, Las Vegas, Park­land—to name just a few.

Lis­ten on Sound­cloud⬇️ or iTunes

https://soundcloud.com/user-709472486/behind-the-stories-how-the-sandy-hook-shooting-changed-the-way-connecticut-journalists-cover-guns

The pod­cast was host­ed by Will Har­ris ’18. Inter­views by Grace Gagnon ’18, Adam Hushin ’19, Lau­ra Gelb ’18 and Mike Mil­ius ’19.

Top image by Heather Mount via Unsplash