Crime is a staple of local television newscasts. However, there is debate regarding the differences between Canadian and U.S. crime coverage on local television broadcasts. There is no difference in the type of crimes that are presented on Canadian and U.S. newscasts. However, multivariate analysis reveals that sensational stories, live stories, and stories that report firearms are more likely to appear in U.S. markets. Conversely, national stories and lead stories are more likely to appear in Canadian markets.
At the local level, American and Canadian news makers engage in selective news construction in an attempt to appease owners or advertisers and uphold traditional attitudes toward criminality and justice.
The cultural identity of many Canadians is structured through a perceived dissimilarity with Americans. Simply put, being a "Canadian" means not being an American. Some Canadians view the "land of opportunity" as a land of poverty, high crime rates, inadequate health care, terrorist threats, and poor race relations. Correspondingly, some media pundits suggest that the Canadian news media are more balanced and more intellectually evolved than U.S. outlets. It is argued that Americans are consumed by fear as a result of increased and prolonged media coverage of "dangerous" street crime. Notwithstanding the fact that the International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) reveals that Canadians report higher levels of fear than Americans, there has been no research examining the actual differences between presentations of crime on Canadian and U.S. local television newscasts. One purpose of this research, therefore, is to systematically determine the differences and similarities between Canadian and U.S. local television coverage of crime stories.
There is little argument that crime is a staple of news production. Although there are variations across media types and across communities with respect to the amount of coverage that crime receives, generally crime is regularly disclosed by..........
