News and television news

The latest writing about the proposal before the FCC to allow for greater concentration of media ownership within specific markets turned the tables on my thinking. In the Post article yesterday, a publisher was quoted talking about how in small markets, tv stations can't afford to provide local news programs and would be cross-subsidized, if allowed by being owned by a local newspaper.

I found this interesting because of how television "news" is skewed to murders, accidents, fires, sports, and weather, and I figure without much happening in the way of murders, how could a local tv station in a small market have anything to report about--unless they start to cover civic affairs.

While focused on newspapers, this piece from the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, entitled "WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF HOMICIDE IN SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTING DANGEROUS PLACES," is interesting. I'm sure the conclusions are even stronger when applied to television news.

The abstract:

While much research has been conducted concerning the coverage of crime by the media, little is known about the spatial aspect of this coverage. Specifically, media research has failed to determine whether the coverage of crime by the media is truly representative of where crime occurs, or whether media coverage presents crime as occurring disproportionately in certain areas of a city. Building on earlier research, and utilizing an exhaustive spatial data set and advanced spatial statistics, this research attempts to determine the degree to which newspaper coverage of homicide is spatially representative of the true homicide picture. Findings indicate that actual homicide hot spots near the city center are more likely to be covered than those on the periphery of the city and that celebrated news coverage is focused largely within the city center. In addition to trends in the spatial coverage of homicides, important social implications relating to fear of crime will be discussed.

Also see Making Local News by Phyllis Kaniss and "Girl run over by riding lawn mower in Southwest Valley," from the Arizona Republic.