NCJ Number
152059
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 18 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1994) Pages: 507-525
Date Published
1994
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Using an actual case study involving extensive pretrial publicity, this study varied the type of medium presented to potential jurors; results showed that exposure to various media had a prejudicial effect on people and that they were not aware of their biases.
Abstract
The study involved presenting participants with graphic testimony on a child sexual abuse case in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. They were randomly assigned to receive stimulus testimony through television alone, newspaper articles, or combined television and newspaper articles. Some participants were assigned to a control group and only received background information on the case and no graphic testimony. The study hypothesized that the effect of combined television and newspaper presentations would result in stronger biases than television alone; that television would be more biasing than newspaper articles; and that the effect of various media conditions on emotional responses, guilt perceptions, and punishment reactions would not be reflected in statistically different responses to reported ability to be fair and impartial jurors. Study participants included 63 female and 58 male university students. As hypothesized, television exposure and television plus newspaper articles biased potential jurors significantly more than exposure to newspaper articles alone. The study raised several important questions about the effect of pretrial publicity and indicated that more needs to be learned about the phenomenon. Even without a precise understanding of the psychological mechanisms involved, however, the authors believe the findings demonstrate the potential impact of sensational television and newspaper coverage of crime on prospective jurors. An appendix contains a sample newspaper article. 37 references and 2 tables