Stopping Preventable Mass Shootings

Team: Nitin Dua (Strategist), Stephen Shocket (Copywriter), Shannon Smith (Art Director)

Situation: Sensationalized media coverage inspires 20 to 30 percent of mass shootings. 

The antihero status created by the glorification of shooters has caused these events to spread like a plague across the United States. While the simple solution would be to alter the way mass shootings are covered, that change will be difficult to initiate as this coverage draws high ratings, which results in higher revenue.

Challenge: How can we incentivize news networks to cover mass shootings in a responsible manner?

Problem: We can’t change the way the networks cover these events.

After interviewing multiple industry insiders, we concluded that the twenty-four-hour new cycle coupled with intense ratings competition has created an environment where covering these events correctly will hurt the bottom line and thus won't be done.

But we found out that there is an interesting starting place to find this news: Twitter. When a mass shooting happens, we see this journey:

Insight: If people stay on Twitter instead of leaving Twitter for CNN, media’s ratings go down. If Twitter reports ethically, the contagion effect dissipates. 

Solution: Partner with Twitter to create an environment free of the antihero status that starts a conversation about the contagiousness of mass shootings.

Why Twitter: As the initial source of news for millennials, Twitter is the perfect place for our message to live and start a conversation. 

Phase 1 :  #NonFamous

Phase Two : The Breaking News Destination

Twitter will need to turn the buzz generated from the #NonFamous campaign into conversions of media consumption. Until recently, Twitter's only advantage over other news sources was speed, but its new features have allowed it to surpass the networks' content.

Periscope: Perspective - As the famous Guardian advertisement demonstrated years ago, perspective is everything when it comes to covering the news. With Periscope, the possibility of hundreds of different perspectives allows for custom live content that can't be matched by major news networks.

Moments: Curation - Designed for live events, Moments allows for users to follow along with the news as it happens. It provides users with an unparalleled aggregation of content, which is constantly updating as the story develops.