NCJ Number
139377
Journal
Media Studies Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1992), 31-44
Date Published
1992
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Police reporting for major newspapers generally follows a four-paragraph format that results in universal, bloodless, and emotionless narratives of crime in American cities.
Abstract
This author states that this type of reporting exemplifies what journalism should not be by anesthetizing readers and reducing violence and cruelty to clear and simple stories. A crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun, he spent a year with a shift of the police department's homicide unit as an unpaid observer, writing crime stories from the perspectives of four detectives, two sergeants, and the lieutenant in command of the shift. The reader can travel through a homicide detective's daily routine and see the pain and violence through the narrator's descriptions. However, many veteran journalists criticized this type of narrative because detectives were depicted as being racist, sexist, homophobic, and unfeeling. Nevertheless, the author reveres the tradition of earlier, ambulance-chasing crime writers and believes that a reporter should inject his personal feelings into a crime story in order to touch deeply the public consciousness.