Tales of Two Cities: How Race and Crime Intersect on Local TV News

A case study examining local television news crime stories in New Orleans, Louisiana and Indianapolis, Indiana. The two cities were chosen because the black to white racial demographic was almost the exact opposite. The goal was to determine if there were differences in the way crime was reported in a predominately white city (Indianapolis) versus a predominately black city (New Orleans). The local news in each city was recorded over a four month period in 2003. The study consisted of a content analysis combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. There were a total of 294 crime stories analyzed in this research. Critical Race Theory was applied in the analysis. Based on the results of the analysis, it appears that whites were reported as suspects most often in Indianapolis and blacks in New Orleans, but when compared to national crime statistics reported by the FBI, there is some over- emphasis in local news on blacks as suspects in both cities. Murder is also over-reported in local television news in both cities when compared to reports from police departments from each city.