The News Value of African-American Victims: An Examination of the Media's Presentation of Homicide

Abstract

This article examines the presentation of homicide in the news. Police data for all homicides occurring in Indianapolis in 1995 were collected We then electronically searched and then collected all articles about these homicides presented in the city's major newspaper. We used several analysis to determine what characteristics (e.g., number of victims, sex, race) resulted in stories receiving more attention (more articles, more words). Results indicate that murders of white victims receive more attention in the news than murders of Afizcan-American victims. The implications for the devaluation of Afizcan-American victims are discussed

Murder in Black

“…In some instances, homicide and other violent crimes can represent a disproportionate amount of news coverage, sometimes more than 40% of crime stories (Chermak, 1995;Graber, 1980;Humphries, 1981;Paulsen, 2003;Pollak & Kubrin, 2007). In addition, as availability for coverage may be limited either due to time or space constraints, the media typically focuses on cases that are the most extreme to capture the audience's attention (Chermak, 1994;Pollak & Kubrin, 2007;Weiss & Chermak, 1998). In particular, those cases that receive coverage are considered to be "high amplitude" (Johnstone et al, 1994), or more specifically "those which deviate most from what is statistically normal" (Chermak, 1994, p. 580).…”

“…Selection decisions, therefore, are based in part on a range of considerations on what constitutes newsworthiness (Chermak, 1995;Gans, 1979;Liska & Baccaglini, 1990) and what crimes are worth presenting (Chermak, 1994;Weiss & Chermak, 1998). Chermak (1995), for instance, suggests that newsworthiness is assessed based on five criteria: the violent nature of the crime, demographic characteristics of the victim and offender (such as age and occupation), characteristics of the news agency, the uniqueness of the event, and finally the event's salience.…”

“…A number of studies (Buckler & Travis, 2005;Chermak, 1995Chermak, , 1998Chermak & Chapman, 2007;Gruenewald et al, 2009;Johnstone, Hawkins, & Michener, 1994;Lundman, 2003;Paulsen, 2003;Peelo, Francis, Soothill, Pearson, & Ackerly, 2004;Pritchard, 1985;Pritchard & Hughes, 1997;Sorensen, Manz, & Berk, 1998;Weiss & Chermak, 1998;Wilbanks, 1984) have examined the extent of media coverage of homicide and have sought to explain factors that are salient in terms of what cases are covered versus those that are not. This form of research has been termed "media distortion analysis" by Gruenewald et al (2009, p. 264).…”

“…This form of research has been termed "media distortion analysis" by Gruenewald et al (2009, p. 264). Not all homicides will receive media attention (Johnstone et al, 1994;Pritchard, 1985;Weiss & Chermak, 1998) and those that do will receive varying amounts of coverage (Gruenewald et al 2009;Meyers 1997). Therefore, it is important for researchers to examine what factors contribute to certain homicides receiving coverage over others.…”

social construction of neighborhood crime by the news media

“…Simply put, the "law of opposites" perspective states that crime is reported by the media in ways that are opposite to real life (Reiner, Livingstone, & Allen, 2003). Prior work has found news outlets to report a number of aspects pertaining to crime in this opposites-based pattern; for instance, they tend to report victims as white, high-status females (Graber, 1980;Garofalo, 1981;Mawby & Brown, 1984;Chermak, 1995) while underrepresenting AfricanAmericans as victims of crime (Pritchard & Hughes, 1997;Weiss & Chermak, 1998). Research has also found evidence for the "law of opposites" in various types of news mediums, including newspapers and television news (Pollak & Kubrin, 2007).…”