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Crime Headlines vs. Reality—What does the local coverage of crime teach about the world around you? How do headlines compare to what the police are reporting to the public about crime in their city?
To find out we took a look at the news coverage of crime for one week in four major US cities. We then compared that to what the police reported about crime that same week in those cities. Most of what we found isn't surprising.
The findings have been compiled into an infographic that you will see at the end of this article.
Murder, Shootings, Stabbings and Assaults overwhelmingly dominate crime news coverage
The media covers these types of crime 20-30% of the time, despite the fact that murder represents less than 1% of crimes committed. In Oakland, the city best ranked for accuracy, the police reports show murder as .8% of crime, while the media's crime coverage focused on murders 62% of the time. If you lived in Oakland and read the news during this week, we'd be surprised if you weren't shaking in your bed after every creak in the night.
In Oakland, residents would have been better served by information discussing burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts—crimes that many people could protect themselves against and that together made up 57% of the crime in that city.
Even in cities where larceny was by far and away the biggest crime threat to the population, news coverage focused heavily on violent crimes like murder.
The majority of crimes documented by the police in Dallas were larcenies, making up 52% of crime that week. News coverage of larceny? Nada. We suspect that crime reporting is heavily influenced by what gets viewers attentions and grabs readers.
Maybe rampant theft is too boring to sell papers, but we're concerned that a problem like theft, which can be addressed by easy to implement and simple solutions, is left to run amok by a populace that's too busy looking for a murderer in the shadows rather than the pickpocket on their train. Quality of life would improve greatly if the mischief of thieves were better blocked by an aware and protective community.
What you probably didn't know is—Local crime news is a great source for criminal information that you wouldn't get from the police.
Two of the cities surveyed had reporters that worked hard to educate the public on criminal justice issues ranging from pending criminal legislation to police misconduct.
We'd like to applaud the efforts of crime reporters in Dallas and New York City for bringing important criminal justice issues to the public's attention. Here's how they did:
Understand that your local crime coverage is likely flooded by headlines using popular crime buzzwords like “kills,” “shooting,” and “assault.” The city with the highest murder rate, still had less than 1% of crimes committed being murders. Just keep that in mind when reading or watching your local news.
But remember, your local news may be the only place to get informed on issues related to criminal justice, police conduct, and other important legislative issues in your city.
To find out we took a look at the news coverage of crime for one week in four major US cities. We then compared that to what the police reported about crime that same week in those cities. Most of what we found isn't surprising.
The findings have been compiled into an infographic that you will see at the end of this article.
Murder, Shootings, Stabbings and Assaults overwhelmingly dominate crime news coverage
The media covers these types of crime 20-30% of the time, despite the fact that murder represents less than 1% of crimes committed. In Oakland, the city best ranked for accuracy, the police reports show murder as .8% of crime, while the media's crime coverage focused on murders 62% of the time. If you lived in Oakland and read the news during this week, we'd be surprised if you weren't shaking in your bed after every creak in the night.
In Oakland, residents would have been better served by information discussing burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts—crimes that many people could protect themselves against and that together made up 57% of the crime in that city.
Even in cities where larceny was by far and away the biggest crime threat to the population, news coverage focused heavily on violent crimes like murder.
The majority of crimes documented by the police in Dallas were larcenies, making up 52% of crime that week. News coverage of larceny? Nada. We suspect that crime reporting is heavily influenced by what gets viewers attentions and grabs readers.
Maybe rampant theft is too boring to sell papers, but we're concerned that a problem like theft, which can be addressed by easy to implement and simple solutions, is left to run amok by a populace that's too busy looking for a murderer in the shadows rather than the pickpocket on their train. Quality of life would improve greatly if the mischief of thieves were better blocked by an aware and protective community.
What you probably didn't know is—Local crime news is a great source for criminal information that you wouldn't get from the police.
Two of the cities surveyed had reporters that worked hard to educate the public on criminal justice issues ranging from pending criminal legislation to police misconduct.
We'd like to applaud the efforts of crime reporters in Dallas and New York City for bringing important criminal justice issues to the public's attention. Here's how they did:
- Dallas crime reporters educated the public about criminal justice issues 25% of the time.
- New York City crime reporters covered criminal justice issues 19.4% of the time
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Understand that your local crime coverage is likely flooded by headlines using popular crime buzzwords like “kills,” “shooting,” and “assault.” The city with the highest murder rate, still had less than 1% of crimes committed being murders. Just keep that in mind when reading or watching your local news.
But remember, your local news may be the only place to get informed on issues related to criminal justice, police conduct, and other important legislative issues in your city.
The infographic and text above was created by Infobia -- a project focused on providing liberating information and sniffing out food for thought on safety, crime, and consumer issues. It's essentially a play space sponsored by SimpliSafe home security for its employees, partners, and collaborators to dig up interesting and helpful facts and share them with the public. For press inquiries, please contact at info@infobia.us
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12 comments:
I'm convinced that most of the murders that the media reports are fake. There are so many fake events that it is just overwhelming.
Why do they do this? I suspect they want us push the government to take away guns. Its more than that though. They want to sell that there are lots of people unstable and that we need to control everyone. Its also used to distract us.
The reality is most people are good. Some are pushed to the edge with the crazy stuff the fake reality presents.
If there were no bad guys making life miserable there would be no murders or crime.
That is my take. I see every fake event and wish others could too.
After studying our society, and mankind in general, it appears that this type of activity, (MSM News reporting) serves several purposes. 1 Fear attracts watchers, and also makes people more easily influenced by the markets. You need to buy this to be safe etc. 2 makes people think they need protecting, thus justifying law enforcement, DHS etc. 3 keeps people from coming together and realizing divide and conquer is the game they are being played, keeping them from uniting and going against the real enemy.
Much of it is about CONTROL
Thus proving the old saying..."If it bleeds...it leads."
What about the PROGRAMMING?
How many murders happen every night on prime time entertainment programs?
How about terrorist attacks?
How about people getting shot in the head or the face?
Why do you think they call it PROGRAMMING?
Remember, before Jack Bauer, only NAZIs and Commies tortured people, rught?
And, of course, no news is good news, according to the saying.
- The Press may be the Greatest Evil - http://nofreepressnofreecountry.org/ - Thanks
No news is good news? Agreed. That's a good reason to turn off the TV.
I like Homer Simpson's reference to Fox News, calling it "infotainment".
My TV hasn't even been plugged-in for three years, now.
Have you seen the latest polls? CNN has lost 50% of its viewers since January 1st. Is it any wonder?
At least on NCIS, they criminals are found & tried in under an hour! :)
One of the best articles I've read in years. This is priceless information that is not covered by the MSM or the self-appointed "underground".
Great Job.
Thank you!
Thanks everyone for the comments! Thanks for Activist Post for publishing this article!
Kevin
www.simplisafe.com/infobia
www.simplisafe.com
This practice by MSM is currently being exposed by somebody I have been following, http://www.wellaware1.com
Check out his work, it is mind blowing- you may not agree with everything but you only need to see a percentage is correct to see the depth of the deception.
It's called "Entertainment". We need to realize that violent crimes are more "exciting" than your normal 9-5 day. They provide conversation, sensationalism, entertainment. Mainstream Media is now governed by politics. Media is bought and paid for to do the bidding of those who want to divide this country any way they can. They use these violent stories to instill fear, distrust, uncertainty, racial conflict, the class war, religious uprising, gender conflicts. Once The New World Order has divided us, it's easier to conquer us and sort out those who support a one-size fits all agenda from those who still want to be individuals. Those individuals will be the ones who get "culled" out of society. Media and the movie industry (both in the same money boat) are used as tools to scare us so much that we turn to the government to "save us". Only thing is, they are the ones from who we need to be saved.
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