The results show that television coverage tends to be more out of line with actual crime than coverage in print news outlets. The report is to be released today in Washington. You need to take a step back and look at whether there are trends and patterns in the data that are consistent. One dominant theme in the data showed that the media disproportionately cover the most unusual crimes. In reality, crime data show, many murders involve people who know each other and are of the same race.
Experts say such coverage leads viewers and readers to fear situations that actually are unlikely.
It leads to public policy prescriptions that say these are bad kids and the way to deal with them is punitive. Since 1992, more than 47 states have made their juvenile justice systems harsher, the report said. Sig Gissler, former editor of the Milwaukee Journal and now a journalism professor at Columbia University, agreed that news reports often don't contain enough context.