Over at YPP, not-quite-ready-for-prime-time mayoral write-in candidate, Larry West made an interesting point, if not with his blog post, at least with the title of his post:
How the Media can Help Lower the Murder Rate
You can read his post but I don't necessarily agree with his point that there needs to be more coverage of the murder rate, nor will placing those stories higher up in television newscasts do the trick. In my comment (reprinted below) I argue that it may be about the quality of each individual story, rather than the quantity:
We've been kicking around this question for a few days now as we try to figure out where to go with thenextmayor.com once "the next mayor" becomes "the current mayor." Some of the concerns that we see with the media coverage of the murder rate is that all of the stories tend to be the same - whether they're done by print media and get on the front page or cover of the paper or by television news.
One of our partners in this project pointed out that the stories tend to follow the same formula: identify victim by age, race, sex and location, say "was killed in a hail of gunfire and becomes victim number XXX." Family of the victim tells reporters how good the kid/guy was and how he never hurt anyone. (More often than not, as the stats bear out, that's not necessarily true and it's those very family members whose abuse/neglect/poor example shaped that person into a not-so-good guy. But that's what we need to know more about.) Cops say that they have no suspects and that the victim had a record (or didn't). No one in the neighborhood wants to dime them out. It's possible... possible that a few days later an arrest is made but for the most part we never hear about that, nor do we get an in-depth, cradle-to-grave look at the perpatrator or an in-depth look at where he got his gun from, etc.
The public, those watching television and reading the paper, get the who and what but they never get the why. And when they do, it's so infrequent that it's difficult to compare those "why's" over a large sample of people or to have those "why's" sufficiently pounded into people's heads that they begin to deman action from their state and local legislators.
Anyway, Larry's point is well taken. Put yourself in the brain of someone who doesn't devote any more time thinking about Philadelphia's crime issue than the few seconds just after seeing a headline or tv news story about it. It seems pretty clear that the coverage being given to this problem, while it serves to continue reminding everyone that there is a problem, does not give a hint about why there is a problem and what options there are to fix it. Of course, there is a fine line to be walked since the media isn't necessarily in the advocacy game but maybe there are just a few more facts that could be reported with each story that will lead people to make their own conclusions without overtly advocating for any specific positions.
Does anyone else have any more thoughts about what the media could do about this?
So, any ideas?
Comments (7)
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop talking about Larry West. Absolutely no one cares, except for Larry.
Posted by Anonymous | August 1, 2007 2:51 PM
Anonymous, at this point, I think you've got your wish.
As to the media...
I will only say, murder is not the weather. It doesn't just happen. There are reasons, and it's our job to go find them and explain them.
Posted by Wendy | August 1, 2007 11:31 PM
I would like to see the media do a special series on the impact of mandatory minimums for low-level drug offenses. Our failed war on drugs is having a devastating impact on families. This is certainly one of the causes of the epidemic of violence.
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