A recent spate of mass shootings that gained national media attention has also meant renewed critique of the way national and local media covers shootings - including reliance on police and perpetrator narratives and how and why some shootings get covered while others are deemed not of national interest. 

So how do those behind-the-scenes editorial decisions get made? How does the media’s focus on certain types of shootings influence the public’s perceptions of violence in the U.S.? And what is the gulf between the reality of violence and the media narrative?

Guests:

Kelly McBride, media ethicist, senior vice president of the Poynter Institute and NPR's public editor; she tweets @kellymcb

Elinore Kaufman, M.D., assistant professor of trauma surgery and firearm injury researcher in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania