Predicting crime story salience: A replication

US Newspapers’ Portrayals of Home Invasion Crime

“…Standardised coefficients, however, reveal that a victim's death is more influential to the word count than a suspect's death (for example, 0.098 compared with 0.062 from the estimates in Model 4). Such findings also corroborate prior evidence suggesting that the seriousness of crimes is a consistent predictor of news salience (Chermak and Chapman ).…”

“…These 15 newspapers were selected because they service US cities that, taken together, are geographically diverse, racially diverse, and have substantial variation in population size and crime rates. This decision follows the logic of Chermak () who examined media biases of homicide within six regional and local papers including the Chicago Tribune because ‘previous studies have not examined cities of different populations and crime rates’ (p.355). We also decided to focus on regional and local newspapers because there might be less ‘event density’ (competition from other newsworthy events) that creates the ‘news hole’ effect sometimes seen within crime coverage in national outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post (Myers and Caniglia ).…”

“…In this quest, newspaper editors use crime stories because they require minimal effort to produce and are thought to satisfy the reader's appetite (Beale 2006;Chermak 1994). But given limited print space, prior research suggests that not all crimes receive the same level of coverage (Chermak and Chapman 2007). Reflecting established news values, novel and violent murder stories and crimes with many victims are not only more likely to be published but also receive more prominent coverage in newspapers (Johnstone, Hawkins and Michener 1994;Paulsen 2003;Pizarro, Chermak and Gruenewald 2007;Sorenson, Manz and Berk 1998).…”

Murder in Black

“…A number of media distortion analyses of homicides (Buckler & Travis, 2005;Chermak, 1995Chermak, , 1998Chermak & Chapman, 2007;Gruenewald et al, 2009;Johnstone et al, 1994;Lundman, 2003;Paulsen, 2003;Peelo et al, 2004;Pritchard, 1985;…”

Examining the Accuracy of Print Media Representations of Homicide in Australia

“…News is a social construction. Rather than presenting 'the facts', media outlets deliberately choose to include certain crimes and not others in their crime reporting (Chermak & Chapman 2007). Homicide (defined as the unlawful killing of a person, including murder and manslaughter : Bryant & Cussen 2015) is particularly 'newsworthy', and international research suggests that homicides are over-reported in the media (Chermak & Chapman 2007;Gekoski, Gray & Adler 2012).…”