Moral Registers of Crime: Comparing TED and Institutional Journalism

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 10: Digital Life, Media, and Algorithms

Abstract

As digital media increasingly influences public understanding of crime and justice, it is increasingly important to understand how different platforms frame these issues. Traditional news outlets have long influenced public perceptions through selective coverage that has the potential to amplify fear, moral panic, and punitive attitudes. In contrast, digital knowledge platforms may offer alternative discursive approaches. This study compares crime and justice framing in talks published by TED and coverage in The New York Times (NYT) between 2009 and 2024 to assess whether TED constructs a distinct moral and rhetorical register relative to institutional journalism. Building on preliminary qualitative analysis of 60 TED Talks, we identified three key dimensions structuring TED’s crime discourse: rhetorical strategy, experiential authority, and moral framing. The current study compares these results to a matched corpus of NYT articles. Using computational text analysis, we systematically compare this knowledge-platform discourse with institutional journalism to assess whether TED advances a particular narrative compared to mainstream reporting.

Authors

• Claire Venables, University of Massachusetts-Boston

• Cam Marsinelli, University of Massachusetts-Boston