ISSUE

Winter 1998

Children and Violence

In this edition, we examine ways in which we report on children and violence. We travel to the sites of the five recent and highly publicized school shootings, then journey into the private realm of family violence, as seen through the eyes of children who witness it. From there, we move into courtrooms and juvenile detention centers, and also get a glimpse of adolescent girls’ increasing involvement with crime. Then, we take a look at how customary methods of coverage shape public perception and policymaking in the arena of child and juvenile crime. Finally, editors at Chicago’s two newspapers take us inside their decision-making when it comes to coverage of children and violence.

Download PDF

Articles

Opinion

Letters

October 6, 1998New York CityTo the Editor:The question asked in your review [Fall 1998] of the Robert D. Richards’ book “Freedom’s Choice” about the right of the editor vs. that…
December 15, 1998
Books

Locating the Citizens’ Pulse

If the 1998 elections represented the maturation of “public journalism,” then pre-election news coverage should have reflected more astutely the concerns and motivations of voters rather than the spin of…
Seth Effron
December 15, 1998
International Journalism

Newspaper Management Keeps Quiet About Its Role in Apartheid

In the Afrikaans Press, Some Reporters Decide to Testify
Tim du Plessis
December 15, 1998
Books

Cataloging Journalism’s Concerns

Richard Reeves, old tad reporter of the finest kind, tells us in salty, joyous prose exactly how and why journalism has metamorphosized. No fooling around.And guess what, this former New…
Thomas Winship
December 15, 1998
Books

Deploring the State of Beltway Journalism

Spin Cycle: How the White House and the Media Manipulate the NewsHoward KurtzTouchstone. 327 Pages. $14 pb.Those looking for a balanced, critical appraisal of press performance in the Monica Lewinsky…
John Herbers
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Dancing to a Different Tune

Before there were Internet news providers, newspapers rarely published the reporting they gathered more than twice a day. Before 24-hour cable news channels, even extraordinary footage usually had to wait…
Caitlin Anderson
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Two Years of Living Electronically

Covering Breaking Foreign News for the Internet
Kari Huus
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Hey Newsboys & Girls—Getting Injured Without Workers’ Compensation Builds Character!

My local newspaper, The Iowa City Press-Citizen, advertises: “Paper carriers are independent businesspersons, buying newspapers at wholesale, selling them at retail and pocketing the profits. And…the profits can be substantial.”…
Marc Linder
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Media and Juvenile Violence: The Connecting Threads

There are some important lessons we’ve learned about how the coverage of violence—especially juvenile violence—influences the way many of us think about teenagers and crime. Related Article “What Numbers Can…
David Doi
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

What Numbers Can Tell Us

336% = the percentage increase in coverage of homicide on NBC, ABC, and CBS nightly news between 1990 and 1995. During this time, homicide arrests dropped by 13%.99% = the…
December 15, 1998
International Journalism

‘Struggling for Memory Against Forgetting’

English-Language Newspapers May Have Been Too Timid, Even Collaborated
Pippa Green
December 15, 1998
International Journalism

Questioning If Guilt Without Punishment Will Lead to Reconciliation

The Black Press Relives Its Own Horrors and Seeks Justice
Mathatha Tsedu
December 15, 1998
International Journalism

Showing Faces, Hearing Voices, Tugging at Emotions

Televising the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Joe Thloloe
December 15, 1998
International Journalism

Winter 1998: Truth and Reconciliation Introduction

How Journalists Tell These Stories Depends on Who They Are and Where They Work
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1998
Local News

Inside the Juvenile Justice System

Lifting the Veil of Secrecy
Jill Wolfson
December 15, 1998
Features

Children’s Exposure to Violence

In therapy sessions, children use art to describe their lives. “Children in a Violent Society,” Edited by Joy D. Osofsky, The Guilford Press.Each year in our country at least three…
Howard J. Osofsky
December 15, 1998
Local News Opinion

Editors’ Question: Do We Fail Our Children?

A street sign bearing his name stands near the pavement where he was slain, a monument to the seven-year-old boy who started a revolution in our newsroom.On the morning of…
Robert Blau
December 15, 1998
Local News Opinion

Parents’ Warning: Remember the Children.

One of the first books I read when I was getting to know Chicago was Alex Kotlowitz’s “There Are No Children Here,” a vivid portrayal of the desperate lives of…
Nigel Wade
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Riding the Crime Wave

Why Words We Use Matter So Much
Jerome Miller
December 15, 1998
Features

Mapping Children’s Roadway to Violence: The Early Years

“I went to Vermont and showed Ernie this story, as it appeared in the magazine. I started from the back and showed him the last picture with his mom. She’s…
Claudia Glenn Dowling
December 15, 1998
Features

Interview with Photographer Donna Ferrato

“This is, by far, the most powerful picture I’ve ever taken because it shows exactly how a child feels when they see their mother being beaten. “The boy is saying…
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

The Superpredator Script

The funeral of a Boston youth. Photo by Stan Grossfeld.There is little doubt that television coverage contributes to the public hysteria about youth crime. In particular, local television news plays…
Franklin D. Gilliam Jr.
December 15, 1998
Nieman Notes

The Scandal: Coverage from the Heartland

After spending nearly 30 years encased in the self-absorption of Washington and international reporting as a diplomatic reporter for the Associated Press and foreign correspondent for The Los Angles Times,…
Kenneth Freed
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Youth and Race on Local TV News

Picture these scenes from two local TV news stories:A young pilot accepts the cheers of well-wishers as she completes a solo cross-country flight, becoming the youngest person ever to do…
Katie Woodruff
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

Giving Readers Ways to Heal and to Help in Springfield, Oregon

Mourners at the memorial fence. Photo courtesy of The Register-Guard.May 21, 1998: It became The Day That Changed Everything. It changed everything we took for granted about what it means…
Jim Godbold
December 15, 1998
Features

Winter 1998: Children and Violence Introduction

In this edition, we examine ways in which we report on children and violence. We travel to the sites of the five recent and highly publicized school shootings, then journey…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

Sensitive Early Reporting Opened Up Good Leads in Edinboro, Pennsylvania

Students show their grief as the procession of slain teacher John Gillette leaves the McComb Field House on the campus of Edinboro University where an open memorial service was held.…
Bob Lloyd
December 15, 1998
Features

Girls and Juvenile Violence

Stories Rarely Told
Elizabeth Mehren
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

Voicing the Community’s Horror Worked Well in Jonesboro, Arkansas

Tristan McGowan, an injured seventh grader from the Westside Middle School, is pushed from the hospital by his grandfather, Bill McGowaned, after being released from the St. Bernard’s Regional Medical…
John W. Troutt Jr.
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

The Freedom Forum’s Critique of The Sun’s Reporting on the Westside Shootings

Here are excerpts form the Freedom Forum critique. The Sun covered the story unblinkingly, in the best journalistic sense of that word. It’s coverage not only was thorough and fair…
December 15, 1998
Local News

When Juveniles Are Locked Up

A Reporter Uncovers Abuse in a System Few People Know Exists
Mary Hargrove
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

Context, Contacts and Accuracy Were Key in Paducah, Kentucky

This photo of Michael Carneal was taken during an early court appearance. Photo courtesy of The Paducah Sun.No one had a hint of—and to this day even he cannot describe—…
Jim Paxton
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

Restraint and Empathy Defined Reporting in Pearl, Mississippi

Pearl High School students pay homage to their fallen classmates during a candlelight memorial service held at Paul Truitt Memorial Baptist Church. Photo by Vickie King/The Clarion-Ledger.Reports of shootings at…
Deborah Skipper
December 15, 1998
Covering Gun Violence Local News

Making Sense Out of a Tragedy

Don’t Report What You Don’t Know
John Schwartz
December 15, 1998
From the Curator

Public Pressure for a Responsible Press

The dizzying whirl of spin and counterspin which marked the months of coverage of President Clinton’s sex life has now come to an end. It’s time to ask what we’ve…
Bill Kovach
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

Measuring the Effects of Changing the Way Violence Is Reported

Reporting on crime and violence has been a staple in the newspaper diet since before the pennycress. In that time, one by-product of this coverage has remained consistent: readers have…
Esther Thorson
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

The Violence Reporting Project:

In 1995, Jane Ellen Stevens, a science writer, embarked on a collaborative project with Dr. Lori Dorfman, Director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group, a public health research organization, and…
Jane Ellen Stevens
December 15, 1998
Journalist’s Trade

The Courts and the Media: Improving the Dialogue

Youngster at Wayne County Juvenile Justice Center in Detroit. Photo by Pauline Lubens/The Detroit Free Press.In ancient times, a coin was flipped to assist people in important decisions of life.…
The Honorable William J. O’Neil
December 15, 1998
Nieman Notes

Lasting Connections of a Nieman Year

In the end, the Nieman year is always about people.The people who share that magical title of “fellow,” and those whom we meet along the route of our nine-month carriage…
Patricia S. Guthrie
December 15, 1998