What Makes A Homicide Newsworthy?: UK National Tabloid Newspaper Journalists Tell All

Gekoski, Anna; Gray, Jacqueline M.; Adler, Joanna R.

doi:10.1093/bjc/azs047

Cited by 57 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This result is a novel finding with previous literature not exploring this influence on recall accuracy from missing children appeals as they typically focus on description list length recall ability (Cary and Reder 2003) or newsworthiness items Fig. 1 Mean recall accuracy scores immediately after recall and after a 3day delay relating to an offender or victim portrayal across the media (Gekoski et al 2012;Peelo et al 2004). Hence, the current study lays the foundation for future research to explore the effects of the type of content enclosed within missing children appeals on recall accuracy of the public further.…”

Section: Influence Of Length and Type Of Contentsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…Theoretically, newsworthiness can be explored through two primary theories. First, the rarity theory suggests that newsworthiness derives from the inclusion of ideal victims such as females and children, events that are unusual or dramatic, or involve more than one potential victim (Gekoski et al 2012;Gruenewald et al 2013;Johnstone et al 1994;Lundman 2003;Peelo, 2006). In contrast, devaluation theory suggests that newsworthiness content derives from the preexisting perceptions regarding the fear and vulnerability of the perceived victims which are held by the reader (Gruenewald et al 2013;Lundman 2003).…”

Section: Newsworthinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effectiveness of Descriptions in Missing Children Appeals: Exploration of Length, Type of Content and Confidence on Recall Accuracy

Hunt

Ιωάννου

Synnott

2019

J Police Crim Psych

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When a child goes missing, it is commonplace to release details of the child in the hope that a member of the public can help to locate him or her. Despite their importance and daily usage, there remains a significant gap in understanding just how effective these appeals are in helping to locate missing children. This exploratory study utilized a two-stage approach and sought (1) to explore whether the length of the description and the type of content enclosed in the description influenced subsequent recall abilities, (2) to determine whether the length of time spent reading the mock appeal influences the subsequent recall ability, (3) to establish whether confidence in own recall ability is associated with overall recall ability, and (4) to determine whether descriptive length and content influences the subsequent recall ability following a 3-day break. Two hundred and twenty-three participants observed one of four mock missing children descriptions followed by a short word memory distraction task and a free-recall task. The second stage comprised of another free-recall task presented after a short 3-day delay. Two-way factorial ANOVAs found observing shorter descriptions have significantly greater recall accuracy than observing longer descriptions both immediately after observing the appeal and after a 3-day delay. Results also found that newsworthy descriptive content had a greater recall accuracy than non-newsworthy descriptive content after a 3-day delay. Additional analyses found that confidence in own accuracy and time spent observing the appeals was also significantly associated with recall accuracy. The findings demonstrate the necessity for improving missing children appeals.

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Section: Influence Of Length and Type Of Contentsupporting

confidence: 53%

Section: Newsworthinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Descriptions in Missing Children Appeals: Exploration of Length, Type of Content and Confidence on Recall Accuracy

Hunt

Ιωάννου

Synnott

2019

J Police Crim Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…For example, Pritchard and Hughes (1997), in a study of two Milwaukee newspapers, found the most consistent predictor of a homicide being covered in those newspapers was that the victim was a child or elderly. Gekoski, Gray and Adler (2012) found similar results using a different methodology: questionnaires to reporters asking their opinion on which types of homicides they considered most newsworthy. They found that 80 per cent of respondents considered homicides involving children to be among the most newsworthy homicides.…”

Section: Victim Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 52%

“…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). 1 For example, Chermak and Chapman (2007) found that while homicide accounts for less than one per cent of reported crimes in the United States ('US'), it features in over 15 per cent of crime stories in newspapers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Accuracy of Print Media Representations of Homicide in Australia

Waters

Bond

Eriksson

2017

Current Issues in Criminal Justice

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Lethal violence is particularly 'newsworthy', and international research suggests that media representations of homicides provide a distorted depiction of the actual nature and risk of homicides. Understanding media portrayals of homicide is important given the impact crime reporting may have on public opinion and policymaking. However, much of the past research has been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom. Using a sample of Australian newspaper articles published between

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“…A unique aspect of IPA is that it foregrounds both an ‘empathic hermeneutics’, which refers to the researcher seeking to understand each participant's particular lived experience, and a ‘questioning hermeneutics’, which refers to the researcher seeking to apply a critical analysis to each participant's account (Gekoski et al , ). Each author brings something to enable this ‘insider/outsider’ duality: the second author grew up in Gloucester and was familiar with the participants' culture, language and frames of reference.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘In Some Eyes It's Still Oooh, Gloucester, Yeah Fred West’: Spatial Stigma and the Impact of a High‐profile Crime on Community Identity

Holt

Wilkins

2014

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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The question of how crime impacts on others has generated a wealth of research over the past few decades. However, there is surprisingly little knowledge about how 'high-profile' crimes impact on community members who live in a town that has become synonymous with the crime itself. This study involves interviews with community members who lived or worked in the town of Gloucester when the serial killings perpetrated by Fred and Rosemary West were discovered in 1994. An interpretative phenomenological analysis explores the lived experiences and meaning-making processes engaged in by the participants. Findings highlight their attempts to make sense of a high-profile case that stigmatised their own community and the practices of identity management that continue to operate some 20 years later. 1 Puddifoot's (1995) analysis of 'community identity' remains a useful operational definition in its identification of six key elements: communities are boundaried, distinctive, affiliated with, oriented towards and evaluated in terms of quality of life and functioning. In this sense, community identity is something that is continually (re)produced through social discourse and practice.It's still "Oooh, Gloucester, yeah Fred West" 83 Smith et al. (2009) suggest that IPA researchers tend to draw on data from between three and six participants.It's still "Oooh, Gloucester, yeah Fred West" 85

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What Makes A Homicide Newsworthy?: UK National Tabloid Newspaper Journalists Tell All

Cited by 57 publications

References 14 publications

Effectiveness of Descriptions in Missing Children Appeals: Exploration of Length, Type of Content and Confidence on Recall Accuracy

Effectiveness of Descriptions in Missing Children Appeals: Exploration of Length, Type of Content and Confidence on Recall Accuracy

Examining the Accuracy of Print Media Representations of Homicide in Australia

‘In Some Eyes It's Still Oooh, Gloucester, Yeah Fred West’: Spatial Stigma and the Impact of a High‐profile Crime on Community Identity

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