A Different Lens? How Ethnic Minority Media Cover Crime
Publication: Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Volume 60, Number 1
Abstract
Abstract
There is a growing body of literature on the nexus of media, race, and crime, which reveals that crime is exaggerated in mainstream media and that these same venues tend to racialize crime and criminalize race. The impact of this is that inaccurate public perceptions about the frequency, seriousness, and demographic distribution of crime are reinforced. Interestingly, however, there have been no focused efforts to explore the ways in which crime is featured within the media targeting specific racial and ethnic communities. We know little about whether such outlets reproduce these patterns. This pilot study is intended to initiate an examination of the representation of crime news in Canada's ethnic media, exploring the patterns of crime reporting in such outlets and comparing the ways in which such news is presented to different audiences. We conducted a content analysis of two English-language newspapers in the Greater Toronto Area, which nonetheless serve specific racial and ethnic communities. Quantitative (e.g., frequency) and qualitative (e.g., themes) findings from the study offer insights into crime reporting patterns, as well as the nature of crime coverage in the studied newspapers.
Résumé
Un corpus croissant d'études sur le lien entre les médias, les races et le crime révèle que le crime est exagéré dans les médias grand public et que ces mêmes médias ont tendance à racialiser le crime et à criminaliser les races. Ce phénomène fait en sorte que les perceptions inexactes de la part du public en ce qui concerne la fréquence, la sévérité et la distribution démographique du crime sont renforcées. Par contre, il n'y a pas eu d'effort sérieux pour explorer la manière dont les crimes figurent dans les médias qui ciblent les communautés raciales et ethniques. Nous en savons peu sur la reproduction ou non de ces modèles par ces médias. Cette étude pilote cherche à commencer l'examen de la représentation des nouvelles criminelles dans les médias ethniques canadiens en explorant les modèles de couverture du crime dans ces médias et en comparant les manières dont ces nouvelles sont présentées à différents auditoires. Nous avons effectué une analyse de contenu de deux journaux de langue anglaise de la région métropolitaine de Toronto, lesquels desservent quand même des communautés raciales et ethniques précises. Des résultats quantitatifs (p. ex. fréquence) et qualitatifs (p. ex. thèmes) offrent un nouveau regard sur les modèles de couverture du crime ainsi que la nature de la couverture du crime dans les journaux étudiés.
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Published In
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Volume 60 • Number 1 • January 2018
Pages: 96 - 121
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© 2018 CJCCJ/RCCJP.
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Published online: 21 November 2017
Published in print: January 2018
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Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 2018 60:1, 96-121
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