What Types of Crimes do Viewers Read?: A Quantitative Content Analysis of National Newspaper Coverage of Crime

• In Event: Violence and Terrorism in the News

Abstract

Research has consistently found that violent images of crime dominant mass communication or media coverage. However, many of these studies have examined national or local television coverage of crime. This exploratory quantitative content analysis examines crime stories from three national print newspapers including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal over a three month period to determine the type of crimes being covered, images being shown, and key demographic characteristics. Preliminary results have supported prior studies that violent offenses tend to receive greater coverage. In particular, stories involving murder, gun violence, and terrorism account for the highest percentages of crime stories discussed in the three newspaper sources. This finding supports the concept of “backwards law” in which offenses that occur the least often (violent crimes) are overrepresented in the media and thus contribute to the public’s fear of crime.

Authors

• Jason Davis, Clayton State University

• Tiffany Thompson, Clayton State University