'Race' and Violent Crime in the Press
2007 was a year of intense media coverage of violent teen-on-teen crime. From south London to north Liverpool, teen-on-teen murders were highlighted and scrutinised by journalists and editors both nationally and locally, spurring a debate in which even prime ministers felt they needed to partake.
This is in itself a good thing – the violence carried out between teenagers on the streets of Britain should be highlighted and solutions debated. However, in the midst of such a media frenzy – especially on a topic which has a long and well established history of fostering racialised stereo-types – there is good reason to pause and look at how the media understands and makes sense of such events.
Runnymede’s Perspectives paper, A Tale of Two Englands – ‘Race’ and Violent Crime in the Press, analyses newspaper articles over a two month period, and identifies clear differential patterns in the way in which the press reports on violent crime. These patterns are strongly informed by notions of race.
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