NCJ Number
139393
Journal
Media Studies Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1992), 195-206
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This review examines five books spanning 140 years of crime-related reporting in New York City. New York City's crime reporting merits extensive analysis because of the genesis of mass-marketed daily newspapers there, its economic power and human diversity, and its position as a premier city of American journalism.
Abstract
New York by Gaslight is a collection of newspaper sketches written by George Foster, one of the first police reporters to work for a mass-circulation daily. The author notes Foster's willingness to hunt for news in every corner of the city as well as his tendency to disguise voyeurism as self-righteousness. Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives is considered a classic of urban journalism; however, many of the photographs and sketches are staged to substantiate his views that tenements were a breeding ground of immorality and crime. Lincoln Steffens' autobiography reflects the expansive spirit of urban reform in late 19th and early 20th century. Steffens was one of the first writers to report crime from the victim's perspective. The demise of the moralistic approach to crime reporting is reflected in the photographs contained in Arthur Fellig's Weegee by Weegee, where the lines between pure and profane are intentionally blurred. Finally, the story of the initiation of a rookie police reporter into the New York City beat, as narrated by Mitch Gelman in Crime Scene, shows how much and how little has changed in the past 100 years.