Dangerously Beautiful: Is there a relationship between the attractiveness of the perpetrator of a homicide and the depth of coverage within Daily Mail articles?

Abstract

Introduction (part): Journalists are encouraged to adhere to professional and moral codes of conduct when reporting and to write articles with truth, impartiality and balance (Barnett, 2006). However, not all news cases are reported and the reasons behind what makes events into news stories is something that is still not entirely clear and this is particularly prevalent in homicide cases (Taylor & Soreson, 2002). In 2013/4, there were 594 confirmed cases of homicide in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2016). It is unclear how many of these cases made it into national news but it is evident that not all will have (Gruenewald et al., 2009). Many scholars have attempted to analyze the victim profile in order to determine whether that effects the relationship between crime news selection and newspaper coverage (Entman & Rojecki, 2001, Lundman, 2003, Mawby & Brown, 1984 & Sorenson et. Al, 1998) but there has been no research into the offender's attributes. By researching the offender, it can be discovered whether there is a link between them and the coverage they receive, in the same way there appears to be for the victim of a homicide.