| This study examines media process in print media behavior in the reporting of homicide cases that occurred in 2001 that were investigated by the Houston Police Department. Content analysis was conducted using HPD press releases and news items published in the Houston Chronicle. Victim, offender, and circumstance information were obtained from the HPD. The study uses OLS and Logistical regression analysis to examine the effects of victim, offender, and social context measures on a variety of dependent measures, including whether a news item appeared in print, the number of news items that appeared in print, the number of words published, and media attention scores that combine measures of number of words, page placement, and the use of photographs with the news items. Additionally, news theme measures and information availability measures are examined to determine their effects on media outcome measures.;The findings suggest victim traits such as female victims and multiple victims are the most important factors in predicting a variety of media outcomes. Robber-related homicides, stranger homicides, homicides involving female suspects, those involving younger victims, and those involving minority suspects are also found to be important predictors for certain media outcome measures, but not for others. A domestic context and homicides emanating from arguments that escalated were found to decrease measures of intensity of coverage for certain models. Other models suggested that the use of a knife or cutting instrument in the homicide decreases intensity of coverage while assault-based homicides increase the intensity of coverage. Certain informational constraint measures were also found to be important predictors of media outcomes. News theme measures are significant predictors of intensity of media attention score. The implications of the findings are interpreted in the context of Barak's (1994) "Newsmaking Criminology" framework. Suggestions for future research are provided. |
