To help journalists understand the truth about violence in our
society and about the impact their reporting has on communities.
One of the strongest criticisms of the news media concerns the
way they cover violence. The constant barrage of crime stories
gives people the impression that violence is on the rise, that
people are powerless, that minorities are likely to commit crimes
and young people are dangerous. Viewers and readers respond by
feeling more afraid and more discouraged about life in their community.
Many people say the media have little concern for the impact of
this kind of news.
What are the media concerned about? Building circulation and ratings,
say the critics. Crime reporting induces fear, the argument goes,
and fear brings people back for more. Sometimes they get information,
often titillation.
One of journalism's most profound critics is the journalist Ben
Bagdikian, former reporter and ombudsman, now retired dean of
Cal Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Bagdikian says we
get so much crime news because it's the cheapest form of news
to gather: the reporting has already been done by cops, and reporters
need only make cursory checks before going with their stories.
The May workshop brought 50 journalists together with 50 community
residents from around Minnesota to talk about crime, violence
and reporting. Speakers from around the country came to challenge
the journalists to replace myth with reality as a basis for their
reporting.
YOUTH
What percentage of violent crime in the United States would you
estimate is committed by juveniles?
Most people - including journalists who cover crime and violence
- estimate the total at between 30% and 60%. Workshop speaker
Howard Snyder, systems research director for the National Center
for Juvenile Justice, heard those estimates and said, yes, that's
the myth. The reality is . . . 19%. And with the exception of
arson, most people attribute far more crime of all kinds to juveniles
than they actually commit.
That's not to say there isn't a significant juvenile crime problem.
Between 1985 and 1994 the percentage growth in juvenile arrests
for murder, robbery, weapons law violations and motor vehicle
theft far surpassed the growth in adult arrests. But Snyder says
arrest figures give only a partial picture: "Because juveniles
are more likely than adults to commit crime in groups, arrest
percentages are likely to exaggerate the juvenile contribution
to the crime problem."
Snyder calls on the media to use statistics not for shock value
but to help foster understanding and advance public-policy debate.
For example, despite rhetoric about curfews, juvenile crime is
four times more likely to occur right after school. Rather than
staying blind to the risks involved in leaving latch-key children
idle after school, communities exposed to these crime statistics
by the media could create more after-school programs.
CHILDREN
What would you know about children if you followed the news media
intently for one month? In a study funded by Children Now, Dr.
Dale Kunkel, associate professor of communication at the University
of California-Santa Barbara found that "far and away the
frame or context ... is either kids as victims or perpetrators
of crime." Children and crime/violence accounted for 48 percent
of all TV newscasts studied and for 50 percent of newspaper stories.
Newspapers devoted 25 percent of their coverage of children to
education, most of that about tax levies and other financing tools.
"Almost entirely overlooked were many important policy issues
and meaningful solutions that fall in the areas of family, health
and economic concerns," Kunkel said.
Children Now hopes the study will convince media outlets to devote
more time and space to children-related topics and it offers a
"10 Most Wanted" list of stories children's advocates
would like to see:
RACE
"The
great majority of Americans do not experience crime directly.
The public's concern about crime rests, to a considerable extent,
not on first-hand experience, but on vicarious encounters, usually
through news reports," said Dr. Franklin Gilliam, Jr., professor
of political science and communications at UCLA. He believes those
news reports seriously distort viewers' beliefs.
Gilliam and his colleague, Shanto Iyengar, showed test subjects
a 15-minute news report that contained one crime story in the
middle of the broadcast. By manipulating the image of the suspected
perpetrator by the use of a computer they studied the impact of
race on attitudes toward crime.
The study found that the way media "play" crime stories
can trigger stereotypical attitudes about minorities. People who
saw black perpetrators were more concerned about crime and referred
to such things as the breakup of the family and declining influence
of religion as causes of crime. Subjects who saw either a white
or unidentified perpetrator were 17 percent less likely to cite
"family values" as a factor.
"By
heightening the public's fear of crime and increasing their enthusiasm
for 'get tough' solutions, the media provide a powerful incentive
for self-serving politicians to gain political advantage,"
said Gilliam. "In particular, that the media activates racial
reasoning about crime potentially encourages elected officials
to pursue a 'Willie Horton' strategy."
Our society would do better, he said, to invest in education and
jobs than in more prisons, but the steady diet of TV crime news
distracts us from that kind of reasoning.
ANOTHER APPROACH
Cheryl Carpenter, an editor at The Charlotte Observer in North
Carolina, told the group about her paper's two-year project, "Taking
Back our Neighborhoods," which changed the way it covered
crime and violence.
Four reporters and two editors moved into the most crime-ridden
neighborhoods in the city, got to know the residents and their
problems, and asked the people what would improve their community.
In cooperation with a local radio and a television station, the
project hired a coordinator to keep on top of community activities
and to facilitate donations that flooded in once the wider community
knew what the neighborhoods really needed.
"I
was stunned," Carpenter said of the overwhelming response.
A bank pledged to build a community center, and did. People volunteered
as tutors. Seamstresses donated uniforms for children.
Carpenter said she learned a lot about Charlotte by undertaking
the project. The experience proved to her the truth of the adage:
getting close changes the story.
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
After a morning filled with presentations, participants broke
into small groups for discussion of news coverage in Minnesota.
Television news bore the brunt of criticism. A rural anti-violence
coordinator said TV news frightens some viewers to the extent
that they won't move to the Twin Cities to search for better jobs.
"There seems to be a big disconnect between what journalists
are intending to do and the impact in the community," said
the group's facilitator.
One citizen said she doesn't read the paper as much as she used
to because it makes her feel beaten down afterwards: "I basically
feel optimistic about my state and the community, but I don't
feel that way when I read the newspaper."
Most community members implored the news media to give something
back to the communities and neighborhoods they cover. "You're
selling people's tragedies, you have an obligation to tell the
good stories (about people of color)," said one woman.
The groups came up with specific ideas to help journalists and
media outlets improve coverage: