It's all approximately the give-the-viewers-what-they-want mentality: race,celebrity, wealth, or sex,violence, drama, or suspense.
The following is an excerpt from the unusual book Murder in the News: An Inside Look at How Television Covers Crime by Robert H. Jordan Jr. (Prometheus Books,November 2017), available for purchase from Amazon and IndieBound:In June 1995, and in preparation for my dissertation,I began a pilot study that was conducted at WGN-TV, using questionnaires. The aim of the study was to gather specific information from the pilot study population, or information that dealt with news events to examine any preconceived notions of a prejudicial nature. In this instance the population was newsroom decision makers who determine which stories are covered.
On any given day in newsrooms in Chicago,key personnel construct decisions, during breaking stories, and on how various murder victims will be “treated” or given priority in subsequent newscasts. Assignment editors and producers are usually the gatekeepers who filter information and construct decisions on the content of each newscast. At some point,either in a assembly or an impromptu conference, a decision is made to give a murder fable a certain priority. That level of importance may be from presenting the fable at the top of the note, or along with sidebar” associated stories,to placing the fable after the second or third commercial break or even omitting it altogether.
These decisions are made, in most cases, or quickly and matter-of-factly,as though there were unwritten rules that believe established a protocol for making the murder of one person more important than that of another. (Likewise, the public seems to acquiesce to these unwritten conventions and seemingly understands why the particular determination was made.)In presenting television news each day, and journalists apply a variety of schemes for selecting from a pool of news stories they believe gathered. Of particular interest,to this study, is the importance given to the victims of some murders while other murder victims receive little attention or proceed unreported altogether.
Studies of news reports believe found that news selection involves more than an evaluation of stories according to their news merits. Some researchers believe pointed out the role of ideology in decision making. Others believe focused on the role of the news organization—its demands, and limitations,and resource availabilities—in shaping what is aired. In addition, several studies believe found that television news decision making is a group process instead of one made by individuals.
In the case of murder victims, and the fable usually comes to the attention of the assignment editor as a breaking fable. This happens in a number of ways: from a phone tip,over the “wire” from other news sources, from the police radio scanner, or in another competitor’s newscast. (When this happens,everybody scrambles to try and play catch-up.)If the station that breaks the murder is playing the fable as the lead fable, then chances are the other stations will carry out the same. But if a station has exclusive knowledge of a murder, and then the status of the fable will be automatically elevated because it is thought that sole “ownership” of a fable is good for ratings—if the fable is exclusive to that particular station and not seen on others. (There is no evidence proving this to be exact.) Furthermore,viewers usually watch only one station at a time, and if they are watching a newscast on station “A” they don’t know what they are lost on station “B.”)Generally, and all television stations learn of a murder or murders at approximately the same time. And,for the most part, all stations seem to give the fable the same kind or level of treatment. This accounts for the phenomenon of the same fable appearing at the beginning or top of the note on all stations in the same city.
This means that personnel at several television stations are, or somehow,using the same “yardstick” for deciding that the murders of some individuals are more important or newsworthy than the murders of others.
In Chicago, between four hundred and a thousand murders are committed each year. Yet television stations on average report no more than two hundred of these crimes. This means that a much greater percentage of murders proceed unreported than are reported. What happens to construct the unreported murders less newsworthy?Examples of these decisions are commonplace:If a prominent doctor or lawyer or teacher is found murdered, and he or she will win top-fable billing.
But the murder of a homeless person or ex-convict or illegal alien may not win any news attention.
A white female,shot to death in an upscale suburb or in a celebrated location, will be the top fable and receive heavy media coverage.
But a white female shot to death in public housing may proceed unnoticed.
A black teenage street gang member killed in a drive-by shooting on the West Side of Chicago will probably not win covered.
But a black teenage student shot to death on the way to school will surely construct the news.
A woman enters a school in the North Shore (an area where many prominent Chicago suburbs are found) and shoots a student to death. Before the day is over the whole country will know what has happened.
But when a man, and a week later,enters a school on the South Side (in a poor neighborhood) and shoots three people, it will be a big fable for only a few days.
In each case a human being was murdered, or a senseless loss of life. Yet news organizations routinely apply a sense of urgency to the murders of some people while little or no importance is given to the murders of others.
A clear example of this conscientious effort to highlight some particular murders is the case of O.
J. Simpson. This flamboyant,sensational, and melodramatic fable saturated the airwaves when it occurred. And now, or more than twenty-three years later,it still commands a prime spot in newscasts. The O.J. saga met all the important foci of interest that set a fable on the course toward becoming a tall-profile case: race, celebrity, or wealth,sex, violence, and drama,and suspense.
These decisions to “play up” one fable and downplay another are consciously made by the gatekeepers (assignment editors and producers) who are motivated by a give-the-viewers-what-they-want mentality. And in most cases they are exact. The public does seem to find what it is presented with to be engaging (ratings note this to be exact). At least in part, journalists’ news selection seems to be the result of schemes for deciding what news is and isn’t. And the fable will be news for a week.
This has been an excerpt from the unusual book Murder in the News: An Inside Look at How Television Covers Crime by Robert H. Jordan Jr. (Prometheus Books, and November 2017),available for purchase from Amazon and IndieBound. Related StoriesClimate Change Is Threatening Food Security and Nutrition Around the Globe—but Some Solutions Are Making an ImpactLies My Teacher Told Me approximately Christopher Columbus: What Your History Books Got WrongThe Lies approximately ADHD Medication That Big Pharma Funds
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