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NCJ Number:	172121

Title:	Making the Movies Real: The Death Penalty and Local TV News

Journal:	Crime, Law and Social Change Volume:26 Issue:4 Dated:(1996-97) Pages:303-328

Author(s):	D Yanichi

Date Published:	1997

Annotation:	Ways in which television broadcast organization cover capital punishment were examined, with emphasis on the themes conveyed and what the public learned.

Abstract:	Media organizations in general and the broadcast media in particular have become extremely important influences on the public over the last three decades. What the media covers and how they cover it is especially important when considering a serious public policy issue such as capital punishment. The general public learns about the death penalty almost always entirely through the media, as few people have direct involvement in capital punishment. An analysis of three local television stations' coverage of the execution of Andres Deputy in Delaware in 1994 demonstrates how the news media in the Wilmington, Del. and Philadelphia areas covered this story. Two stations provided relatively balanced coverage and offered a larger discussion of the death penalty as a sanction. The third station seemed to be operated according to its commitment to the Action News format. These and other cases indicate that the method of media coverage of capital punishment results from both the nature of crime news and the increasing tendency of news to be driven by the demands of the market. However, discussions of factors such as opposition to the death penalty and the context in which it is imposed are significant attributes of stories about capital punishment and should be included if a news organization is functioning in the public interest. This need is great in the United States due to its longstanding ambivalence about capital punishment. The absence of such coverage results in stories that simply chronicle the application of retribution; this approach is neither good journalism nor in the public interest. 34 reference notes (Author abstract modified)

Main Term(s):	Criminology

Index Term(s):	Capital punishment; Delaware; Media coverage; Pennsylvania; Public Opinion of Corrections

Page Count:	26

Format:	Article

Type:	Survey

Language:	English

Country:	Netherlands



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