The Media is Under-reporting Crime

      I’m tired of the constant criticisms of the media regarding our coverage of crime.  People just love to criticize the media… the media’s biased, the media’s too negative, the media’s this, the media’s that.  Much of the criticism is levelled on the basis of perception rather than facts.  It’s time to lay to rest the oft-repeated criticism that the media assigns too much prominence to crime, at the expense of other types of stories.  It’s simply not true.
I decided to do a content analysis of our own news here at Nationwide for the month of December.  I examined the headlines in our flagship news programme, Nationwide at 5, between December 1 and 24.  A total of 100 news items made the weekday headlines during that period.  The #1 story in December on NNN was the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry, with 19%.  Stories about the economy were second at 17%, followed closely by business stories at 15%.  Crime stories were the fourth most prominent in our news, at 11%.

     Additionally, upon examination of the types of crime stories covered by NNN during the period reviewed, it was evident that the majority of these stories were not cut-and-dried crime stories.  Most of them had some greater significance, as opposed to being simple reports about so-and-so killed so-and-so.  Here is a brief description of some of the stories I included in the crime category for this study:

• PNP Councillor Venesha Phillips shot at
• JLP caretaker condemns attack on councillor Phillips
• Knife attack at Sav-la-mar lockup
• 1 of 4 abducted women found
• Vybz Kartel possibly to be questioned over Cory Todd shooting
• Government websites hacked
• Body in Clarendon death squad case to be exhumed
• Break in at Parliament
• Policeman killed in Manchester
• 14 year old murdered
• Drugs seized

     I don’t have the specific crime statistics for December, but there were 1005 murders committed across Jamaica in 2014.  That works out to an average of 84 per month, not including other types of violent crimes such as shootings, rapes and robberies.  We reported 11 in our headlines, including only 3 murders.  The media is in fact under-reporting crime.
     Now before anyone says well that is just NNN, I also examined the Gleaner.  I looked at all their front page stories between December 1, 2014, and January 11, 2015—a total of 104 stories.  The vast majority of Gleaner stories during that period were on social issues, such as Sunday’s headline about the alarming number of divorces, or so-and-so needs assistance for surgery.  Social issues represented 20% of the Gleaner’s top stories between December and January.  Second was business at 12%, while crime was third at 8%.  Politics followed closely at 7%, and stories about the church represented 6% of the Gleaner’s coverage.

     The nine crime stories in the Gleaner included a story about a 10-year-old held in a lotto scam probe, the police commissioner’s crime review for 2014, two 16-year-olds held for the murder of a retired matron, credit card fraud at gas stations, lesbians reportedly targeted, the Safe Schools programme, extortion clean up downtown, and a crackdown on stolen cars.  Again, not cut-and-dried crime reporting, and also not the sensationalism that we are often accused of.
     Having had the benefit of working in a newsroom in another country for several years, as well as anchoring a Caribbean news programme for two years, Jamaica is not nearly as guilty of sensationalizing nor over reporting crime as is believed, or as compared to other countries in the region.  In Belize, for example, every murder makes the news, and it almost always leads.  Belize’s murder rate is alarming, coming in at number-4 in the world in 2014, just behind Jamaica.  Of course, because of its much smaller population, even though the murder rate is almost comparable, the actual number of murders is a lot less.
     Still, the treatment of murder is also a lot different.  Belizean news is notorious for showing gory images of dead bodies.  It is not unusual to turn on the nightly news and see a bloody body on the street, in a drain, slumped over a veranda, still oozing blood from the clearly visible gunshot wounds.  Of course followed by an interview with the grieving mother forcing words though her tears.  And then an interview with the lead detective about what he or she believes happens.  It is the same in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Gruesome images are broadcast and published uncensored.  I’m not supporting that type of reporting.  The media in those countries have been strongly criticized for those strategies, and I personally have never been a fan of that type of journalism.  I’m just saying that Jamaica really is not that bad.
     I remember when I first began working in a newsroom in Jamaica, that was at CVM TV.  It was probably my first week on the job and I was going through the police reports.  I came across three separate murder stories and instinctively began working on them.   I was shocked when none of them made the news.
     Another early experience in Jamaica that I remember vividly was being sent on an assignment to March Pen Road.  I was casually told by my editor to collect a bullet proof vest at the security gate.  I was alarmed, and even though—thankfully—nothing happened, it hit home to me how real the crime situation was and still is in Jamaica.  Yet, contrary to public perception, it does not get the proportional prominence in the news that it deserves.  That may be in large part because it’s been so bad for so long that many Jamaicans suffer from crime fatigue.  We just don’t want to hear about it any more.
     But should we simply sweep the crime issue under the rug just because people are tired of it?  If crime continues to be one of the top issues facing the nation, does it not deserve proportional attention in the news?  I took a look at some of the Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls over the past few years.  Between 2006 and 2010, Jamaicans ranked crime as the number-1 issue facing the country.  Crime fell to the number-2 issue in 2011, behind unemployment.  It may be more than a coincidence that a downward trend in crime began in 2010 and has continued to this day.  Jamaicans’ concern about crime has fallen as the numbers have fallen, however, crime still remains among the top 3 issues of concern.
     My point is this—you can’t continue to say that crime is such a big national problem, yet complain that the media is giving it too much attention.  Crime deserves the coverage and prominence that Jamaican media assign to it, and more!  There are media houses in Jamaica that don’t cover crime at all, as policy.  Others under-report, as evident by the content analysis I’ve presented this morning.  This is not a good thing, no matter how desensitized and crime fatigued we have become.  The media must continue to shine a light on this major issue, until we’re no longer in the top five, or ten or one-hundred countries in the world for violent crime.  Until a murder is once again such an extraordinary and shocking thing that no one questions its relevance in the news.

And that's MY perspective!