Media Coverage in Crime

report on how a specific media source covers crime. The choices for media sources may include any of the following: local television news broadcasts; network news shows (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN); a newspaper (local, regional, or national) or news magazine (i.e. TIME, 60 Minutes); a primetime crime drama currently being broadcast or in syndication; TV crime documentaries (i.e. “America’s Most Wanted,” “Cops”), a series of crime movies that deal with your particular theme (i.e. juvenile delinquency, organized crime, police corruption, deviance in women’s prisons, , etc.); talk radio programs; or crime literature (magazines, comics, short stories, or novels). Many of these sources now have Internet sites. The number of media sources you must cite will vary depending on the topic and the medium selected for analysis, however, you must obtain a representative sample. In general, 10 days media coverage, 10 movies, 10 episodes of a crime-related TV show (each must be listed separately on the references page and cited within the paper using APA format) 10 issues of a magazine, etc., is needed to have enough material to complete the assignment. These are minimums.
If you are reviewing a daily news source(s) you should include a full listing of the number of crimes covered by category (e.g. murder, robbery, rape, property crimes, white-collar crime, computer crime, government deviance, etc.), specific details on “high profile” stories, and criminological explanations offered.
Your paper for this project should include the following:
a. media sources you will use
b. major topic of your paper
c. a list of 3 to 6 subtopics you will cover. These should of criminological significance such as demographic characteristics of depicted individuals, criminological motivations offered, patterns or techniques, etc.
Your subtopics serve as the major issues you are to investigate. Your paper should use the subtopics as major headers and use the media sources as descriptive data for discussion, categorization, and comparison. Tables or charts summarizing your findings can be included. We are not looking for comprehensive plot lines or story lines per se; these should be included when they are essential to discussing the subtopics. However, facts and direct quotes from your media sources are what get used to illustrate your main points. Do not compare your media data to scholarly or factual sources. Keep personal opinions out of the paper.