NCJ Number
125782
Date Published
1990
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the agenda-setting effects of a five-part television investigative series on the brutality of Chicago police officers found that the reports had a significant impact on the members of the public who viewed or heard about them.
Abstract
The study used a quasi-experimental research design. A local station (channel 5) spent 6 months investigating allegations of police brutality. The station's cooperation with the researchers provided ample time for the researchers to measure public attitudes toward police brutality prior to the airing of the series. Questions were tailored to the content of the report. The sample was stratified according to television viewing habits: watchers of channel 5 (253 respondents) and watchers of other evening newscasts or nonwatchers of any television news. One week after the series was broadcast, researchers recontacted the entire sample. A purposive sample of "policy elites" was selected for its interest and potential influence on law enforcement policymakers. Data indicate that persons in the two treatment groups experienced a significant increase in their perception of the importance of police brutality after being exposed to the reports, although they did not change their ranking of brutality relative to other urban problems. Persons in the two control groups did not change their opinions of police brutality. Significant changes could be detected in the elites' view of public opinion about police brutality, but they did not increase their own concern about police brutality as a social problem. 2 tables, 12 references.