Jae Hong Kim e-mail(Login required) , Joseph Abisaid e-mail(Login required)

Main Article Content

Authors

Jae Hong Kim e-mail(Login required)
Joseph Abisaid e-mail(Login required)

Abstract

335
This study examines patterns of local newspaper crime coverage in terms of the community structure model, which is derived from the research of Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien. A total of 32 metropolitan statistical areas and primary metropolitan statistical areas, classified into four different categories of community according to the structural characteristics of structural pluralism and ethnic diversity, were selected for inclusion in this study. Crime news reports from the major newspaper of each selected community were analyzed based on the types of crimes (violent crime vs. property crime). These data were then compared to FBI crime statistics. In terms of the results, ethnic diversity was found to be a more important factor than structural pluralism in explaining the high proportion of violent crime coverage and the lesser amount of reportage of property crimes, as well as the discrepancies between the newspaper crime reports and the FBI crime statistics.

References

Antunes, G.E., & Hurley, P.A. (1977). The representation of criminal events in Houston’s two daily newspapers. Journalism Quarterly 54, 756-760.

Armstrong, C.L. (2002). Papers give women more attention in ethnically diverse communities. Newspaper Research Journal 23, 81-85.

Armstrong, C.L. (2006). Revisiting structural pluralism: A two-dimensional conception of community power. Mass Communication & Society 9, 287-300.

Armstrong, C.L. (2008). Exploring a two-dimensional model of community pluralism and its effects on the level of transparency in community decision making. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 85, 807-822.

Bennett, W.L. (2003). News: The politics of illusion (5th ed.). New York: Longman.

Carroll, R.L., & Tuggle, C.A. (1997). The world outside: Local tv news treatment of imported news. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 74, 123-133.

Chiricos, T., Padgett, K., & Gertz, M. (2000). Fear, tv news, and the reality of crime. Criminology 38, 755-785.

James, D.F. (1952). Crime news in Colorado newspapers. American Journal of Sociology 57, 325-330.

DeFleur, M.L., & Ball-Rokeach, S.J. (1982). Theories of mass communication (4th ed.). New York: Longman.

Demers, D. (1996). Corporate newspaper structure, editorial page vigor, and social change. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73, 857-877.

Demers, D.K. (1998). Structural pluralism, corporate newspaper structure, and news source perceptions: Another test of the editorial vigor hypothesis. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75, 572-592.

Demers, D.P. (1994). Structural pluralism, intermedia competition, and the growth of the corporate newspaper in the United States. Journalism Monographs (Whole No. 145).

Donohue, G.A., Tichenor, P.J., & Olien, C.N. (1973). Mass media functions, knowledge and social control. Journalism Quarterly 50, 652-659.

Dreier, P. (1982). The position of the press in the U.S. power structure. Social Problems 29, 298-310.

Dunwoody, S., & Griffin, R.J. (1999). Structural pluralism and media accounts of risk. In D.

Demers & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Mass media, social control, and social change: A macro social perspective (pp. 139-158). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. Editor & Publisher International Year Book. (2002). New York: Editor & Publisher Co.

Gandy, O.H., Jr. (1999). Community pluralism and the “Tipping Point”: Editorial responses to race and related structural change. In D. Demers & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Mass Media, Social Control, and Social Change: A Macro Social Perspective (pp. 159-181). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., Signorielli, N., & Shanahan, J. (2002). Growing up with television: Cultivation process. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (pp. 43-67). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Graber, D.A. (1993). Mass media and American politics (4th ed.). Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Hindman, D.B., Littlefield, R., Preston, A., & Neumann, D. (1999). Structural pluralism, ethnic pluralism, and community newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 76, 250-263.

Hirsch, P., & Thompson, T. (1994). The stock market as audience: The impact of public ownership on newspapers. In J.S. Ettema & D.C. Whitney (Eds.), Audiencemaking: How the media create the audience (pp. 142-158). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Jeffres, L.W., Cutietta, C., Sekerka, L., & Lee, J-W. (2000). Newspapers, pluralism, and diversity in an urban context. Mass Communication and Society 3 (2&3), 157-184.

Jewkes, Y. (2004). Media and crime. London: Sage.

Keefe, S.E., & Padilla, A.M. (1987). Chicano Ethnicity. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Lipschultz, J.H., & Hilt, M.L. (2002). Crime and local television news: Dramatic, breaking, and live from the scene. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Maguire, B., Sandage, D., & Weatherby, G.A. (1999). Crime stories as television news: A content analysis of national, big city, and small town newscasts. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 7, 1-14.

McCluskey, M., Stein, S.E., Boyle, M.P., & McLeod, D.M. (2009). Community structure and social protest: Influences on newspaper coverage. Mass Communication and Society 12, 353-371.

McManus, J. (1995). Market-based model of news production. Communication Theory 5, 301- 338.

McQuail, D. (2000). McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Nah, S., & Armstrong, C.L. (2011). Structural pluralism in journalism and media studies: A concept explication and theory construction. Mass Communication and Society 14, 857- 878.

Roshier, B. (1973). The selection of crime news by the press. In S. Cohen & J. Young (Eds.), The manufacture of news: A reader (pp. 28-39). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Sheley, J.F., & Ashkins, C.D. (1981). Crime, crime news, and crime views. Public Opinion Quarterly 45, 492-506.

Simpson, J.C. (1995). Pluralism: The evolution of a nebulous concept. American Behavioral Scientist 38, 459-477.

Tichenor, P.J., Donohue, G.A., & Olien, C.N. (1980). Community conflict and the press. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Tichenor, P.J., Donohue, G.A., & Olien, C.N. (1973). Mass communication research: Evolution of a structural model. Journalism Quarterly, 50, 419-425.

Metrics

Search GoogleScholar


Details

Article Details

Section
Articles