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Original Message
"Who or what determines what the Media covers"
Posted by jbug on 07-26-13 at 02:44 PM
There are many crimes.
There are many hate crimes.
There are many racial crimes.

Why do some crimes get national attention and others are barely heard of by even those in the immediate community?

Case in point.
I don't remember hearing about this one at all.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/news/local/channon-christian-christopher-newsom-murders/

It happened in Knoxville in 2007. (wonder how many of our middle & eastern TN peeps heard about it?)

There were trials and now retrials.

Who or what causes the media to cover what it does?


Table of contents
Messages in this discussion
"RE: Who or what determines what the Media covers"
Posted by Snidget on 07-26-13 at 03:26 PM
Having watched crime news for awhile I think there are several factors.

1. Does it have some "movie of the week" aspect to it. If Lifetime will make a movie of it, it is more likely to get covered than if it is a fairly standard killing/kidnapping/crime. Particularly if there is something really taboo about the killing. Cut up and served as BBQ in the neighborhood diner will get you more coverage than being killed for mundane and usual reasons and found in a shallow grave.

2. Is the victim particularly attractive, well known, or tragic. Again, good movie of the week material.

3. And probably the main one. Who has friends and family with either the time, the money, or the need for attention, to keep going on news show after news show. Bonus points if the friends or family have some kind of entertainment value or are particularly obnoxious in some way. Just won't shut up works, but you can't wait to see what insanity they spout next will get you extra air time, even if they are friends of the accused.

Now some of #3 you can't blame the family for as they know that if they have the time and money becoming a media circus sometimes will get enough police on the ground or pressure to prosecute to get something done about it.

Basically make sure the crime that happens to you isn't boring. You need something that will catch the imagination of the general public in a way that will sell papers, keep them from changing the channel, or be something that can be sold as books and movies after the fact.

If you are an average person with family that would rather stay out of the spotlight who has something fairly normal happen to them (even if brutal) probably no one will ever know about it other than people who will read a couple of inches on page 37 of the paper.

Like I have said several times, dead pregnant attractive woman from a fairly well off family woman who lived on a wide street full of photogenic mini-mansions with lots of parking in California dominated the local news where poor, average looking, family who just wanted to be left alone, lived in a trailer park with a single car wide loop through it, dead pregnant woman, who worked part time a family chain restaurant got next to no coverage. And she only got her body being found covered because they thought she was a dead woman from Durham who played in the symphony so was a minor local celebrity as she was wrapped in the kind of tarp the husband bought the day she disappeared. At least they did bother to put a small piece in the paper when he was convicted, but nothing like the every day hours long coverage of the California trial.


Sexting Alterego by Pepe LePew

"Snopes speculation"
Posted by AyaK on 07-26-13 at 05:43 PM
Snopes speculates on why this received so little coverage, but it's nothing more than speculation:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

"RE: Snopes speculation"
Posted by Snidget on 07-26-13 at 06:22 PM
*nods*

And I don't know about the statistics but I don't think there is really a no white person being killed or disappearing ever gets any media coverage at all, ever going on from what I see.

Plenty of pretty white girls get splashed all over the media.

Again, not having the stats, but I've heard of plenty of minorities finding that except on occasion they usually don't get as much coverage as similar white cases that occur around the same time, even among the more usual amount of coverage cases.

For example locally, Eve Carson. Pretty white girl. UNC student, senior, was student body president got so much coverage nationwide friends of mine in California called to see if I was OK because they heard about a shooting on campus (it was off campus in the middle of the night, but all they knew was some UNC student got shot.

Faith Hedgepeth, from one of the small Native American Tribes in this state. UNC Student, pre med, junior, well liked, but not politically active (also shot in the early morning hours, but in her apartment, not left for dead on the street). Got some local coverage, but most of us at the time of her death were shocked by how little coverage there was in the local news. Especially with how much coverage there had been in Eve's case just a couple of years earlier. Although her murder is still unsolved where Eve's case was relatively easy to solve as they had ATM security camera footage of the people that killed Eve.

I can't recall if Eve's police investigation stuff was sealed up early on, so that may be why more coverage, they actually did have things to report. Faith's police stuff was sealed early on and I think is still sealed so hard to report on stuff when there is nothing you are allowed to see.

Back to the in general, I think the how much the parents (or other people with some connection to the crime) are willing to seek media attention has a huge role. If the family wants to grieve in private and refuses to hold all kinds of press conferences (or isn't telegenic enough) and tells the media whores to leave them alone, they don't get nearly the coverage a family that is calling up every news outlet to get their story out and won't take no for an answer.

Sure black families tend to recruit black media whores to up the volume, but there are white media whores that are more than happy to make lots of noise as well, and I think more of the white ones have TV shows to talk about crimes than the black ones do.


Sexting Alterego by Pepe LePew

"RE: Snopes speculation"
Posted by cahaya on 07-29-13 at 11:01 PM
LAST EDITED ON 07-29-13 AT 11:05 PM (EST)

Thousands of crimes occur every day in this nation, some of them quite horrific.

It's the media editors who decide what appears on the top of the web pages, the more sensational and the faster they can get it up online, the better.

Black or white, or any color in between, it happens every day, whether it's in Florida or in the south side of Chicago, where there is more than one killing a day.


Pepe's summer 2013 sig blast

"RE: Who or what determines what the Media covers"
Posted by foonermints on 07-26-13 at 10:27 PM
»Who or what causes the media to cover what it does?«

Revenue and yellow journalism?

Forbidden Foonerlink!

"RE: Who or what determines what the Media covers"
Posted by Dakota on 07-29-13 at 10:28 PM
Another factor is does the victim or their family/friends know someone? A Senator, a reporter, or someone with media connections?

Do you have a case that will support a "cause", whether racism, illegal immigration, corruption, etc. Get it to the attention of someone like Piers Morgan, Al Sharpton, Barbara Walters or Glenn Beck. Social media makes that possible.

Both of these would also fit with Snidget's Lifetime movie theory.

When Holder said he was going to set up a tipline for Zimmerman, I wondered why there was no tipline for Darrell Green. Black boy killed in Chicago because he wouldn't join a gang. Stopped going to school cause he was scared. They found him face down in a stairwell somewhere. Why no tipline? Because politically, drawing attention to gangs and drugs in Chicago is not encouraged, it's presumed to be black-on-black and he was beaten to death, not shot. It gets a mention, but no detail unless the victim performed at the inauguration. Twenty-six children killed in Connecticut gets media attention and the families get a ride on Air Force One. Many times that get killed in Chicago, but not all at once by a single crazed gunman, and it gets mentioned in only general terms.



Agman's Spring Fling '12.3

"RE: Who or what determines what the Media covers"
Posted by personofinterest on 07-30-13 at 08:43 AM
I agree with what has been discussed. I remember when Elizabeth Smart was abducted and was immediately all over the news. She was young, pretty, and from a well to do family. Then, of course, the fact that she was found alive added to the press. It was as close to a "feel good, hopeful" ending as you could probably get in that situation, so I understand that press.

There were a number of interviews with relatives of African American teenagers who had disappeared and the discussion was similar to this thread in that why were their children ignored in the press when sometimes that press coverage is what leads to the return of abducted children (or at least leads to some conclusion). The one story I remember was a teen aged African American boy who was an honor student, popular, etc. He was also a very cute young man. That story would meet a lot of the crieria for a good story. Boys don't seem to make the news that often unless they are very young.

I am a crime story addict, and I sometimes watch a show called Disappeared. They seem to do a good job of showing more diverse cases.

"RE: Who or what determines what the Media covers"
Posted by Dakota on 07-30-13 at 10:28 PM
You'd think the 24 hour news cycle would leave room for more stories, especially those where the public's help is necessary due to lack of leads. Unfortunately, with world events and political news and commentary, there's still not much time devoted to crime outside of D.C. Shows like Disappeared, America's Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries, etc., show that there's an interest.


Agman's Spring Fling '12.3

"Local peep remembers news story"
Posted by newsomewayne on 08-01-13 at 12:25 PM
I definitely remember that case. It's my backyard, after all. It's been major news since it happened. Heinous as it is, it's been considered closer to a crime of opportunity than as any kind of hate crime based on race.

Just in case anyone has had lunch and is interested in trying out bulemia, yet lack the proper motivation, here's a pretty good rundown of the events.

This is a case where I don't think a punishment could ever come close to fitting the crime.


Tebow Time is over. We prefer to win games in the 1st quarter.
Trade managed by GM Agman, 2012

"RE: Local peep remembers news story"
Posted by cahaya on 08-01-13 at 03:57 PM
Horror of Christian/Newsom killings in focus...

Yikes, and as close as the crime is to your neighborhood, they still somehow included your faith and online name in the headlines too.


Pepe's summer 2013 sig blast

Good to see you, dude.

"RE: Local peep remembers news story"
Posted by newsomewayne on 08-01-13 at 04:24 PM
Good to see you, dude.

Blame Big Brother.

Chenbot or Obama, you decide.

Nice to be around here.


Tebow Time is over. We prefer to win games in the 1st quarter.
Trade managed by GM Agman, 2012

I'm going to start adding a copy of the Constitution to all my emails. That way, the government might actually read the thing once in a while.