NCJ Number
225400
Journal
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 202-219
Date Published
2008
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article reviews recent Finnish quantitative research on the trends of crime news reporting in the media.
Abstract
The overall picture of this review is one of striking and consistent increase in the non-fictional portrayal of crime, especially violence. The amount of crime news reporting has consistently increased both in the newspapers and in television news broadcasts during the last decades. This trend is most drastic in tabloid front-page headlines and ads, but serious news operators, such as the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE) does not seem to be exempt from the rise of the crime topic on the agenda. The local press also participates in the general trend. A series of representative surveys also show that the majority of people read and view crime news on a regular basis and are therefore constantly exposed to these media messages. Crime news reporting has increased in several Western countries during the last century. The present decade has witnessed a veritable flood of research in tabloid crime news reporting. In this article, findings are presented of crime media research conducted in Finland during recent years. Figures, tables, and references