Murder in the Media: Restrictive Representation, the Fragmentation of Crime, and “Loose Ends” in Crime Reporting

• In Event: Crime and Media

Abstract

The presentation of murder in the press is a cultural crossroads for the interpretation of extreme violence and the workings of homicide detectives. The proliferation of homicide centred television and media shows present a skewed version of reality as much as homicide reporting remains largely a truncated and non-instructive medium for the dissemination of public knowledge. In this paper, I examine media accounts of murder in terms of their limitations for the construction of meaningful accounts of human tragedy. The compressed nature of current reporting, the factors which underlie this approach, and its impact on truth finding and negative impacts on public perceptions of the justice system are explored.

Author

• Thomas Fleming, Wilfrid Laurier University