Reporting Trajectories of Top Homicide Cases in the Media: A Case Study of the Times

• NCJ Number: 204181
• Journal: Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2004 Pages: 1-14
• Author(s): Keith Soothill; Moira Peelo; Jayn Pearson; Brian Francis
• Date Published: February 2004
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study examined the trajectories of “mega-cases” in the leading British newspaper, The Times, over a 23-year period in order to understand how these crime stories became mega-cases and moved into the shared knowledge of a culture.

Abstract

While some crime stories are simply reported on once or twice in the media and then fade from public consciousness, other stories reach such portions as to become major crime stories that leave a lasting impact on society. This study located these well-covered crime stories, termed “mega-cases,” in a wider criminological and sociological context in which newspaper reporting both reflects and shapes social relations within a society. “Mega-cases” imprint powerful messages on the public consciousness about danger and moral boundaries. Through a study of the trajectories of 13 crime “mega-cases” in The Times, the authors investigated the points at which these stories intensified and received more intense news coverage. The two main goals of the research were to achieve a detailed understanding of the process or set of structures underlying the reporting stages of the “mega-cases” and to account for the variations in reporting at each stage. In studying the trajectories of mega-cases, importance was placed on the primary incident leading to the story. The 13 cases under examination were divided into 3 groups according to the primary incident: (1) serial killers; (2) mass killers; and (3) single homicides. The media coverage about the incidents was found to be very different from the media coverage of the “process,” which began once the killers were caught. Process coverage has predictable elements while incident coverage may be unpredictable. Despite this relative predictability in the process coverage, “mega-cases” vary in their reporting patterns, but they all have the power to disproportionately shape our collective knowledge of homicide and our ideas of moral boundaries. Furthermore, the reporting trajectories of “mega-cases” may very well correspond to the development of specific “moral panics” within society. Tables, figure, appendix, notes, references