Journalists Across the County Look at the Sensationalism of Crime in the Media
(Mary Dupuis, Nov. 13, 2022)
The Law and Justice Journalism Project (LJJP) recently held a panel via Zoom with reporters around the country to discuss how to combat the sensationalism of crime in the media.
On Nov. 2, Cherri Gregg, Esq., the Host and a News Anchor for WHYY-FM, Philadelphia; Professor John Watson, an Associate Professor at American’s School of Communications; Harry Hairston, a Senior Investigative Reporter for NBC-10; and Jenny Gathright, a reporter for WAMU joined together to share their thoughts on how to proceed with the coverage of crime.
The panel was open to all journalists and followed a question-and-answer format between the host and the panelists. There was also time allotted for attendees to ask their own questions.
According to the project’s website, LJJP’s mission is to aid reporters in improving their published work on the criminal legal system.
It states that throughout history the coverage of crime, courts and safety has influenced public perception on these issues and thus contributed to mass incarceration. It’s LJJP’s goal to provide reporters with the tools needed to improve their coverage of these issues.
The effects of this sensationalism can be seen reflected in many different areas of society, not just through incarceration rates.
A study done by the Pew Research Center on Oct. 31, 2022 shows that violent crime has become a key midterm voting issue with thousands of ads centered around violent crime this year.
However, official statistics from the federal government show that this is not the issue some media are making it out to be.
Gregg opened the panel by reading some headlines of stories that she felt contribute to the sensationalism of crime.
Headlines included, “Violent Crime is Now a National Epidemic — Who Should We Blame?” and “‘Everybody is armed’: As shootings soar, Philadelphia is awash in guns.”
When asked to define sensationalism, Watson said he doesn’t view it as an inherently bad thing. He defines sensationalism as presenting information in a manner that evokes an emotional response.
Watson said what can lead to negative consequences is when sensationalism is excessive.
“Reporting on crime falls into the basic framework of good versus evil,” Watson said. “And we all have an automatic natural, hardwired response to want to hear about evil being vanquished by good. So the police and crime stories set up that paradigm.”
He said while the stories can be newsworthy for this reason, it’s necessary for reporters to monitor how they cover them.
“We as professionals have to learn to navigate to to use sensationalism properly to emphasize the importance of this story, but not to merely keep people focused on it beyond its actual importance,” Watson said.
Building off of this Hairston said he feels a problem behind sensationalism is exploitation of smaller instances. An example he gave was the media taking a video clip of a fight between students, a fairly common occurrence, in school and replaying it online, in broadcast, doing a story in print, etc. The coverage may make it seem like a school is a violent place, or may make the community feel unsafe.
Gathright said it’s important to remember that not everything is news just because there’s a video of it, and news judgement is key in determining this.
“I think (exercising news judgement is) the first step toward ending unnecessary, unwarranted sensationalism,” Gathright said. “The fact that we highlighted (a crime) makes people believe it’s news because they’re thinking, ‘They wouldn’t put on a news unless it was something really important.’…It has to warrant it space.”
Hairston agreed, and said it’s extremely important for journalists to not just report on a story, but to do the digging and background research do make it relevant and meaningful for readers.
The panel emphasized the importance of not grasping at “low-hanging fruit” to make headlines. They said just because a story on a crime could be easy, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s important to report. What is the benefit to the public? For example, if someone in the area has a gun and is dangerous it may be more important to report than a crime that was an isolated incident and there is no risk to the public.
There was a group consensus at the conclusion of the panel of the importance of listening to those in the communities affected by the crime, and understand how it impacts them. They also urged reporters to cover the good things community members are doing to heal, and to prevent further incidents.
Find out more about The Law and Justice Journalism Project (LJJP) at https://www.ljjp.org/.
