NCJ Number
221877
Journal
Judicature Volume: 91 Issue: 3 Dated: November/December 2007 Pages: 124-134
Date Published
November 2007
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study involved a content analysis of local television news coverage of the criminal trial of four New York City police officers charged with murder in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, a Bronx resident.
Abstract
Analysis of the 201 newscasts found that the majority of coverage consisted of reporter or anchorperson voice-overs and footage from outside the courtroom. When the media did use the video footage or the audiotape from inside the courtroom, the coverage was in the form of sound bites. The mean length of each newscast was 3 minutes and 35 seconds. On average, each story contained 47 second of audio coverage from inside the courtroom. For every 10 minutes of news coverage, the public heard 2 minutes of actual court proceedings. These findings on news coverage of a single, albeit significant trial, parallel previous research and reviews regarding how established news formats and editing decisions shape broadcast content. Cursory coverage of dramatic elements of an event, including trials, is a well-established pattern in the news media, particularly as the line between information and entertainment is blurred. This research shows that the assumption that news coverage of trials are an exception must be questioned and reexamined. Future research should explore the development and measurement of key concepts for systematic examination. Newscasts from five television stations were analyzed each day court was in session (a total of 12 days). The total number of newscasts during this period was 216. Each station's 30-minute midday newscasts and the evening newscasts for the four Albany television stations were analyzed. The newscasts from New York City were from one channel and included only a late broadcast. Three events were measured for each newscast: total time spent on the story, total time spent airing video footage from inside the courtroom, and time spent airing audiotape from inside the courtroom. 1 table and 4 figures