Effects of News Stories that Put Crime and Violence into Context, The: Testing the Public Health Model of Reporting

Author's Abstract

"The purpose of this study is to examine whether changing the way newspaper stories report crime and violence can induce shifts in readers' perceptions of the problem. Using an experiment that manipulates the framing and graphic presentation of newspaper stories on crime and violence, we seek to discover whether the public health model that calls for news stories to incorporate information on context, risk factors, and prevention strategies will help readers learn more about the context in which crime and violence occurs, endorse prevention strategies in addition to punishment, and become more attuned to societal risk factors and causes of crime and violence."

The studies implemented and reflected in this paper were focused on United States locations and US-based newspapers. Some lessons and concerns identified by the authors include:

• "Talking about crime episodes while also pointing out their pattern of occurence, and what variables are associated with their occurrence, can produce enhanced knowledge in readers..."
• People pick up public health information equally well when it is included contextually within a story and when it is separate from the story, in a graphic presentation.
• When public health information was added to stories, they were evaluated with respect to "enjoyment" more negatively by readers than those stories that did not include public health information.
• The time it takes to collect public health information and the amount of space needed in a newspaper to include it are constraints for most journalists. "Public health professionals can help by assisting reporters to gain access to data...".

This article is available only through the Journal of Health Communication. Please see the source information or contact the author, below.