Homicide Reporting in Chicago Dailies

Abstract

Fewer than a third of the 684 homicides committed in Chicago in 1987 were reported in either of the two metropolitan Chicago dailies. Both papers, as expected, were more likely to cover “high amplitude” crimes that involved more than one victim. They were also more likely to report homicides if the offender was male and the victim female, and less likely to do so if the victim was African-American or Hispanic. Additional factors affected whether an individual paper would cover a story. Once selected for coverage, only the “amplitude” factor consistently predicted the prominence a story received.