The press needs to do better when they write about victims of traffic violence
Words matter, and journalists have historically written about collisions that injure or kill people on bike or on foot in a way that dangerously normalizes them as acceptable and inevitable. BikeAthens has produced a Media Guide for local journalists to use as a resource so that they may humanize the people involved in these stories and break the normalization of traffic violence. In the guide we cite a body of existing guidance from around the country and use local examples for context. We will continue to update the guide as needed.
This work was sparked by internal discussion after a recent Athens Banner-Herald article covering the death of Willie Sims, who was killed when a motorist struck him while he was walking along Lexington Road. The article is an excellent example of a disturbing pattern in journalism where the victim is implicitly or explicitly blamed and dehumanized through language choices.