Guilty and Threatening: Visual Bias in Television News Crime Stories

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 104-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Barnett

This experiment investigates the effects of television crime news portrayals of the accused on evaluations of that person. Forty subjects watched television crime news stories, which contained either visual (dressed in an orange suit, wearing handcuffs and being restrained by a police officer) or aural (mention of a prior record) bias. Results show that subjects who saw the visual bias evaluated the accused as more threatening, dangerous and guilty than those who did not see the bias. Those who heard about a prior record evaluated the accused as more threatening and guilty, but not as more dangerous than those who did not hear about the record. These impressions of guilt remained after a two-week delay. Findings illustrate how common TV news portrayals of a person accused of a crime can prejudice the general public. Also, accidental viewing of a criminal defendant in prison clothes or being restrained can affect snap judgments about that person during the trial. Implications for journalists and the legal system are discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate MacKrill ◽  
Greg D. Gamble ◽  
Keith J. Petrie

Background Following a nationwide switch to a generic antidepressant, a series of negative media stories publicised the experiences of some patients having side effects following the switch. This occurred first in print media and five months later it occurred again in television news. In this study we examined the effect of television news stories compared to print stories on adverse drug reaction reporting. We also examined the change in reporting rate of specific side effects mentioned in the TV news bulletins. Method Using an interrupted time series analysis of data from a national adverse reactions database, we compared the number of adverse reaction reports after the print and television coverage and the changes in reporting rate of side effects mentioned and not mentioned in TV news stories. Results We found a significant increase in adverse reaction reports following TV news items that discussed patients’ reports of side effects following the medication switch (interruption effect = 73.25, p = .046). The reporting rate of symptoms mentioned in the TV news bulletins also increased, in particular suicidal thoughts (interruption effect = 23.60, p = .031). The effect of TV stories on adverse reaction reports was 211% greater than the print articles. Conclusions Television stories have a much stronger effect than print media on nocebo responding and specific symptoms mentioned in the bulletins have a direct influence on the type of side effects subsequently reported. Media guidelines should be developed to reduce the negative public health effects of media coverage following medication switches.


Author(s):  
K. M. Konkina ◽  

The paper presents the results of a study that examined the contexts of the coronavirus theme coverage on Russian TV news. In addition, the article considers the thematic diversity of the agenda for the period from February 1 to February 29, 2020. The study focuses on TV channels Russia 24, Moscow 24, OTR, Mir, and Euronews. Thus, the paper processed in all 4,930 original news stories, 869 of which were devoted to the topic of coronavirus. The aim of the study was to find out how TV journalists constructed the agenda at that time and how they were dealing with the topic of coronavirus. The collected data demonstrated that the television channels covered the themes at an equal rate. Moreover, the topic of coronavirus often constructed as the news of public interest, with more attention being paid to its coverage from an economic and political point of view, while a scientific explanation is the least common.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Gibbons ◽  
Rodney J. Vogl ◽  
Thomas Grimes ◽  
Charles P. Thompson
Keyword(s):  

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. A. Gibbons ◽  
N. M. Traxel ◽  
R. J. Vogl ◽  
T. Grimes
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-I Liu

<p><a>This study investigates the informing effects of communication in political campaigns from a geospatial perspective. The results from analyzing survey data collected during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections in the U.S. generally suggest that the main forms of traditional </a>communication, i.e., print newspapers and network and cable television news—but with the exception of local TV news—play a significant role in informing citizens about political campaigns. Political discussion also plays a role in this regard. The implications of the respective roles of a number of news forms in a democracy are discussed.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Gollust ◽  
Erika Franklin Fowler ◽  
Jeff Niederdeppe

Television (TV) news, and especially local TV news, remains an important vehicle through which Americans obtain information about health-related topics. In this review, we synthesize theory and evidence on four main functions of TV news in shaping public health policy and practice: reporting events and information to the public (surveillance); providing the context for and meaning surrounding health issues (interpretation); cultivating community values, beliefs, and norms (socialization); and attracting and maintaining public attention for advertisers (attention merchant). We also identify challenges for TV news as a vehicle for improving public health, including declining audiences, industry changes such as station consolidation, increasingly politicized content, potential spread of misinformation, and lack of attention to inequity. We offer recommendations for public health practitioners and researchers to leverage TV news to improve public health and advance health equity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Heri Sutanto ◽  
Dadang Suprijatna ◽  
Nurwati Nurwati

Police efforts in achieving the educational goals has not come true as well. Jakarta Police SPN even further behind the other Police-Police found in Indonesia. Indicators not maximal achievement of educational goals Police use them visible on the lower end of the exam results Education and Formation (Diktuk) Police Officer Polda Metro Jaya on the NES. The role of educators is expected to print the candidates NCO Professional Police so that they can run their police duties properly in accordance with the ethics of the police which is based on the Tribrata. The method used in this research is the method of juridical sociological (empirical). The establishment of the Police Officer Education is an education to establish and equip students to be members of the police who have the knowledge, skills, abilities, commendable attitude and behavior in the context of carrying out police duties that come from the general public with the lowest level of high school graduates who have passed the various required tests such as administration and others.


1998 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter C. Soderlund ◽  
Ronald H. Wagenberg ◽  
Stuart H. Surlin

Abstract: The profound changes experienced by the international political system from 1988 to 1992, subsumed under the rubric ``the fall of Communism,'' suggest an opportunity for changes in the way North American television news would report on events in Cuba. This article examines major network news coverage of Cuba in Canada (CBC and CTV) and in the United States (ABC, CBS, and NBC) from 1988 through 1992. Given the different histories of Canadian-Cuban and U.S.-Cuban relations since the revolution, the extent of similar negative coverage of the island in both countries' reporting is somewhat surprising. Also, it is apparent that the end of the Cold War did not change, in any fundamental way, the frames employed by television news in its coverage of Cuba. Résumé: Les changements profonds dans le système politique international qui ont eu lieu de 1988 à 1992, et qu'on décrit généralement comme marquant la "chute du communisme", indiqueraient la possibilité d'un changement dans la façon que les chaînes nord-américaines auraient de rapporter les événements dans leurs programmes d'information sur le Cuba. Cet article examinera les programmes d'information des chaînes canadiennes les plus importantes (CBC et CTV) et de celles des États-Unis (ABC, CBS et NBC) de 1988 jusqu'à 1992. Étant donné l'évolution différente dans les relations Canada / Cuba et États-Unis / Cuba depuis la révolution cubaine de 1959, nous avons été frappés par le degré de ressemblance entre les reportages négatifs sur le Cuba faits par les chaînes des deux pays nord-américains. En plus, il est évident que la fin de la guerre froide n'a pas changé de manière fondamentale le point de vue des reportages télévisés sur les événements cubains.


Author(s):  
Pamela Shoemaker

Simply put, gatekeeping involves deciding which messages to send to others and how to shape them. Billions of events occur each day, many with political ramifications, but there are more events than the news media can cover or even know about. Political information competes with all other topics to pass through source and media gates. Politicians create forces that constrain or facilitate this passage, but making it through one gate is usually not sufficient. Multiple gates in source, media, and audience channels winnow messages until we have those few that become television news stories or blog posts. To explain this process, gatekeeping theory was proposed in the late 1940s by Kurt Lewin; it is one of the older theories applied to the study of mass communication.


2021 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Lene Heiselberg ◽  
Morten Skovsgaard

Journalists include ordinary people as exemplars – also known as case sources – in news stories to illustrate the general issue through their personal accounts. These accounts from exemplars tend to evoke emotions in the audience and carry greater weight than base rate information when people form perceptions or attitudes on the problem at hand. In this study, drawing on a news story in which an expert source and an exemplar provide conflicting information, we explore viewers’ emotional response to the exemplar and their perceptions of the expert source and the main message of the news story. We do this by presenting participants with two versions of a television news story – one with and one without an exemplar. We measure participants’ emotional response through a combination of open-ended and close-ended self-reports and directly through electrodermal activity, and we explore their perception of sources and the message of the story through open-ended questions. We find that viewers experience increased arousal when they watch the personal account of an exemplar, and that they tend to interpret the base rate information in the light of the exemplar’s account. Furthermore, some respondents tend to delegitimize the expert source that contradicts the account of the exemplar. We discuss the implications that these results have for journalists and provide tentative advice on which measures journalists can take to counter such effects.


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