Murder in the News

September 25, 2017
Veteran Chicago television journalist Jordan doesn’t make effective use of his decades of experience in this investigation into how today’s news media covers violent crime. He wants both future journalists and lay people to better understand how reporters decide “which stories to trumpet and which stories to push to the back pages,” based on editors’ and reporters’ belief that the public is more interested in coverage of crimes with affluent or celebrated victims, or gruesome aspects. But instead of providing a thoughtful analysis of the issue, he offers a repetitive, and sometimes sloppy, review of familiar issues, such as the minimal coverage of gang murders, without offering any new insights (“With so many things going on and resources spread so thin, two or three dead would be necessary to spark the attention of news editors on most busy days”). A section on how Jordan uses social media to personalize his broadcasts by posting photos of himself and his coanchor with a “clever caption” (they receive “thousands of views”) runs contrary to his overall premise that more time should be spent reporting on every murder. With no discussion of information overload or the effectiveness of different types of coverage, this is an overly simplistic account of an important and timely topic.