Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Scripted Approach To Violent Crime Coverage: How News Media Strikes Fear And Racializes Political Discourse, Mackenzie Crosson

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project analyzes the consolidation of crime coverage on the Chicago Tribune's digital platform with the aim to question the formulaic tendencies of news media as an institution. Specifically, the study examines the production of violent crime coverage in urban news media as following a particular "crime script" which, through the script's reliance on racial imagery in the form of mug shots, proliferates toxic correlations between the concepts 'black' and 'criminal.' Paired with elements of a political economic analysis, the project argues that this temp lated production of crime news mixed with news corporations' pursuit of profit ultimately works to …