Crime and Network News

Paper Summary:

This paper is a content analysis of network (ABC, NBC and CBS) local and national news broadcasts, focusing on the reporting of stories related to crime. The study is based on the viewing of a half-hour segment of news on the three national and three local stations' broadcasts (six half-hour segments), with that viewing concentrating on crime-related compared to non-crime-related stories. The analysis also examines the nature of the crime stories, including the type of crime, the reporting agency, victim characteristics and offender characteristics, and compares national and local coverage.

From the Paper:

"We see in a comparison of the local and national news on ABC that on the local level the stories of crime seem to feature violence for its own sake, or for "entertainment's" sake, rather than for any larger social issue, while on the national level one story involved a dramatic crime in a low-crime nation, and the other involved issues (DNA testing, death penalty) which transcend the crime itself."

More papers on Crime and Network News:

• Research Proposal # 102328 : "Network News Bias"
• Comparison Essay # 73789 : "Trifles" and "Crime and Punishment"
• Analytical Essay # 28257 : "Criminal Investigation of JonBenet"

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