Media Coverage of Supreme Court Decision Making: Problems and Prospects

• NCJ Number: 138424
• Journal: Judicature Volume: 75 Issue: 3 Dated: (October-November 1991) Pages: 128-142
• Author(s): E E Slotnick
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Media coverage of U.S. Supreme Court decisions is critical to public understanding of the Court, since television coverage and other news media serve as the primary link between government and the public.

Abstract

The Supreme Court is relatively invisible because the public must rely almost exclusively on the news media for information about the Court. Television is especially important as a source of information. Nonetheless, problems in media coverage of the Court concern difficulties inherent in understanding complex litigation and technical legal arguments and then filing stories on them within a few minutes or hours. Supreme Court decisions are not written for a lay or journalistic audience, and proposals for radical reforms to facilitate media coverage of the court have met with little success. Most judges simply do not see a great deal to be gained in an exchange relationship where the reporter's work is made easier. The most frequently mentioned desire of the media is to place cameras in the courtroom. Supreme Court reporters are less participatory in the processes they cover than their colleagues in other governmental settings; therefore, it is difficult to argue that journalists have any impact on court decisions. Advance preparation is generally acknowledged as the key to successful coverage of the Supreme Court. Primary differences between television and newspaper coverage of the Court stem from fundamental differences in the broadcast and print media themselves and from different commercial environments in which they operate. Styles of reporting on the Supreme Court by television journalists have developed as a necessary response to the predicament television reporters find themselves in while covering a low-priority target. Social science research on media coverage of political processes and government institutions is generally lacking, and the absence of scholarly attention to television coverage of the Supreme Court is particularly notable. 144 footnotes