Crime news is a highly developed sub-genre that reflects organizational priorities, audience preferences and systemic biases. This is because “the news media does not cover systematically all forms and expressions of crime and victimizations. It emphasizes some crimes and ignores other crimes. It sympathizes with some victims while blaming other victims.”
Crime news employs specific narrative frameworks to simplify complex issues, often resulting in biased and stigmatizing portrayals.
To counteract the structural biases and sensationalist tropes that currently dominate crime coverage, newsrooms must deliberately shift their practices toward accountability, context and the humanization of those affected. Improving crime reporting requires journalists to articulate a new journalistic purpose and prioritize structural analysis over episodic details.
In this lesson, students consider the idea that a news source can be “accurate but misleading” through the concept of framing. Students learn about the different ways that news stories may be framed, identify examples of framing in a news story, then find and evaluate examples of framing in news stories on a particular issue.
In this lesson, students will focus on how to understand and actively curate their digital news feeds to counteract the tendency for algorithms or single viewpoints to create a distorted perception of reality. Students begin by defining "news" as a genre and distinguishing its essential elements and tropes from related sub-genres like opinion and documentary. They then do a news audit to analyze their current habits, then learn to verify the reliability of both mainstream and independent journalists. The lesson ends with an independent assignment where they create a persuasive presentation to advocate for a reliable news source to their peers.
The way we get our news has changed dramatically because of the internet. While TV is still the most popular news source for Canadians overall, younger Canadians rely mostly on social media. This shift means people depend less on news outlets to choose what to cover and more on what their friends share or what social media algorithms recommend. As a result, there’s a growing concern that the news people receive hasn't been fact-checked or isn’t objective.
The following best practices guide journalists in navigating the pitfalls of exaggeration, inadequate vetting and biased framing inherent in modern news production.
