E-Book Overview
This volume offers an analysis of crime coverage on local television, exploring the nature of local television news and the ongoing appeal of crime stories. Drawing on the perspectives of media studies, psychology, sociology, and criminology, authors Jeremy H. Lipschultz and Michael L. Hilt focus on live local television coverage of crime and examine its irresistibility to viewers and its impact on society's perceptions of itself. They place local television news in its theoretical and historical contexts, and consider it through the lens of legal, ethical, racial, aging, and technological concerns. In its comprehensive examination of how local television newsrooms around the country address coverage of crime, this compelling work discusses such controversial issues as the use of crime coverage to build ratings, and considers new models for reform of local TV newscasts. The volume includes national survey data from news managers and content analyses from late night newscasts in a range of markets, and integrates the theory and practice of local television news into the discussion. Lipschultz and Hilt also project the future of local television news and predict the impact of social and technological changes on news. As a provocative look at the factors and forces shaping local news and crime coverage, Crime and Local Television News makes an important contribution to the discussions taking place in broadcast journalism, mass communication, media and society, and theory and research courses. It will also interest all who consider the impact of local news content and coverage.
E-Book Content
Crime and Local Television News Dramatic, Breaking, and Live From the Scene LEA'S COMMUNICATION SERIES Jennings Bryant/Dolf Zillmann, General Editors Selected titles in Journalism (Maxwell McCombs, Advisory Editor) include: Bunker • Critiquing Free Speech: First Amendment Theory and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity Friedman/Dunwoody/Rogers • Communicating Uncertainty: Media Coverage of News and Controversial Science Heider • White News: Why Local News Programs Don't Cover People of Color Merrill/Gade/Blevens • Twilight of Press Freedom: The Rise of People's Journalism Merritt • Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News is Not Enough, Second Edition Wanta • The Public and the National Agenda: How People Learn About Important Issues For a complete list of other titles in LEA's Communication Series, please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Crime and Local Television News Dramatic, Breaking, and Live From the Scene Jeremy H. Lipschultz Michael L. Hilt University of Nebraska at Omaha IEA 2002 LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS Mahwah, New Jersey London Copyright © 2002 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah,NJ 07430 Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lipschultz, Jeremy Harris, 1958Crime and local television news : dramatic, breaking, and live from the scene / Jeremy H. Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt, p. cm.—(LEA's communication series) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-8058-3620-9 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8058-3621-7 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Crime and the press—United States. 2. Television broadcasting of news—United States. I. Hilt, Michael L., 1959II. Title III. Series. PN4888.C8L57 2002 070.4'49364—dc21 2001057761 CIP Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acidfree paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1