WHAT MAKES A HOMICIDE NEWSWORTHY? UK ...

doi:10.1093/bjc/azs047

BRIT. J. CRIMINOL. (2012) 52, 1212–1232 Advance Access publication 27 August 2012

WHAT MAKES A HOMICIDE NEWSWORTHY? UK National Tabloid Newspaper Journalists Tell All Anna Gekoski*, Jacqueline M. Gray and Joanna R. Adler

Keywords: homicide, interpretative phenomenological analysis, journalists, newsworthiness Introduction The media dedicate ‘inordinate attention’ to reporting on homicide (Lundman 2003: 358). In fact, with the exception of treason and kidnapping, homicide is the most reported and newsworthy of all crimes (Johnstone et al. 1995: 861). However, not all murders are selected for news coverage: some homicides receive a great deal of attention, with high-profile coverage across all forms of media, generating front-page ‘splashes’ in national newspapers and lead items on television and radio news, while others do not merit a mention at all or are only covered in local news (Lundman 2003: 358). Yet, despite increased academic interest in media coverage of murder, ‘an empirical void remains in the literature regarding the factors that contribute to the decision-making process of whether to cover, and how much to cover, a particular homicide event’ (Gruenewald et al. 2009: 262). Previous research is predicated on the premise that newsworthiness should be considered an ‘observable social action’: that is, researchers should analyse, normally through quantification, what journalists do, rather than what they say (Clayman and Reisner 1998: 197). Such quantitative research has found that media coverage is disproportionately increased when homicides involve: victims at either end of the lifecycle (children/elderly) (e.g. Pritchard and Hughes 1997; Sorenson et al. 1998); female victims (e.g. Peelo et al. 2004); white, as compared to black or minority ethnic, victims (e.g. Sorenson et al. 1998; Paulsen 2003); victims of a higher social status (e.g. Johnstone et al. 1995; Peelo et al. 2004); multiple victims (e.g.

* Middlesex University, The Burroughs, Hendon, NW4 4BT, UK; [email protected].

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Homicide is the most newsworthy of all crimes. Yet not all homicides are reported equally: some receive extensive coverage while others receive little or none. Qualitative questionnaires, completed by ten UK national tabloid journalists, explored the criteria that determine the newsworthiness of homicide. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed that, with certain exceptions, homicides involving ‘perfect’ victims, statistically deviant features, killers on the run, sensational elements and/or serial killers will almost always be newsworthy, while those involving ‘undeserving’ victims in commonplace circumstances will almost always not. However, analysis further revealed that there will always be caveats to this, with some, normally under-reported, homicides gaining widespread coverage through unpredictable factors such as current societal issues or interest from a particular editor.

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Paulsen 2003; Gruenewald et al. 2009); no previous relationship between victim and offender (‘stranger’ murders) (e.g. Peelo et al. 2004; Buckler 2005); and firearms (e.g. Gruenewald et al. 2009). Some researchers have sought to explain the newsworthiness of such homicides by way of statistical deviance—also referred to as novelty, rarity, expectedness or unusualness—that is, how far an event differs from the statistical norm (Chermak 1995: 27–8). Thus, it may be argued that murders involving female, young, elderly, affluent and/or white victims are particularly newsworthy because of their relative infrequency when compared to other types of murder (e.g. Soothill et al. 2002: 419; Buckler 2005: 18–19). News, after all, as one editor of a newspaper in New York so memorably remarked, is something out of the ordinary: ‘When a dog bites a man, that is not news; when a man bites a dog, that is news’ (quoted in Keir et al. 1986: 3). However, in light of evidence that some rarer forms of homicide (such as those by female offenders) are under-reported, it has been argued that statistical deviance cannot be a necessary and sufficient condition of newsworthiness (Pritchard and Hughes 1997: 64; Lundman 2003: 378). Another theory has sought to explain the newsworthiness of homicide by reference to assessments of the overall ‘worthiness’ or ‘innocence’ of the victim, which has created a dichotomy between ‘perfect’ or ‘ideal’ and ‘undeserving’ victims. Ideal victims are typically ‘a person or category of individuals who—when hit by crime—most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim’, including those who are traditionally seen as being weak, vulnerable, innocent and respectable, such as elderly women and children (Christie 1986: 18). In contrast, other victims, seen as ‘undeserving’ and therefore less newsworthy, may include those on society’s margins and from groups associated with crime, such as the homeless, drug users, runaways and young male aggressors (Greer 2007: 22–4). However, like statistical deviance, victim worthiness is not a complete explanation of newsworthiness, as traditionally ‘undeserving’ victims may sometimes receive heavy news coverage when influenced by other factors, such as cultural context (Soothill et al. 2002: 418–20). Indeed, some highly newsworthy homicides involve neither statistical deviance nor ‘perfect’ victims. Illustrative of this point is the murder of Stephen Lawrence in London in 1993, which, according to the criteria discussed thus far, should have received minimal coverage, as the case involved the (statistically commonplace) street killing of a black youth (a traditionally ‘undeserving’ victim) in a poor area. However, the case became one of the 13 most heavily reported ‘mega cases’ over a 22-year period (Soothill et al. 2002), arguably because it tapped into the zeitgeist in ways virtually impossible to predict statistically (Cottle 2004). The unexpected newsworthiness of certain such homicides has led to the argument that quantitative analyses may be too broad and insufficiently nuanced to address the complexity of the area (Soothill et al. 2002: 417–18). Thus, it is argued that we must ‘go beyond simply enumerating coverage’ to gain ‘a more detailed and richer picture’ of media reporting of homicide (Soothill et al. 2004: 9). This research therefore employed a qualitative methodology, going directly to the source of decision making about the newsworthiness of homicide: journalists themselves, including not only reporters, but also those working in editorial positions. This follows the lead of Pritchard and Hughes (1997) where quantitative analyses were supplemented by, and tallied with, accounts gathered from interviews with five journalists

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in the United States. In the present research, a sample of UK national tabloid journalists were asked about their decision making regarding the newsworthiness of homicide by way of a qualitative questionnaire, which was analysed using the methodology of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The broad questions to be explored were: Why do journalists think that some murders are more newsworthy than others? What are the criteria that journalists utilize in judging a homicide as newsworthy? As far as can be ascertained, this is the first UK study of its type. Method Design

Participants IPA uses an idiographic rather than a nomothetic approach, the emphasis on the particular rather than the general, using small samples in order to allow for a detailed and nuanced analysis (Smith et al. 2009: 29). In accordance with this idiographic commitment, a small sample of journalists for whom this research area was relevant, was sought. Participants were ten journalists who worked for national UK tabloid newspapers in a staff or freelance capacity who had written about homicide, the number of participants being broadly in line with IPA guidance (Brocki and Wearden 2006: 8). Participants consisted of seven men and three women, with a mean age of 40, all of whom described themselves as white. They had been journalists for a mean of 15 years, having worked on a mean of three national tabloids each (range = 1–8). Participants were personal contacts of the first author who formerly worked as a tabloid journalist (see ‘Reflexivity’ section below). To maintain confidentiality, participants are here referred to by pseudonyms. Materials A three-page electronic qualitative questionnaire entitled ‘The Newsworthiness of Homicide’ was created, which made use of both open and closed questions. In creating 1214


A self-administered online, qualitative questionnaire, using a mixture of open-ended and closed questions, was employed in this research. This methodology allowed for the busy and unpredictable work schedules of participants, as questionnaires could be completed, in stages if required, at a time convenient to them. Although interviews are the most commonly used method of data collection in IPA (Brocki and Wearden 2006: 4), postal questionnaires have previously been utilized by Coyle and Rafalin (2000), and it has been found that self-administered questionnaires, using open-ended questions, can gather data as rich, in respect of length of response and amount of information collected, as face-to-face and telephone interviews (de Leeuw 1992). Although this approach may not be suitable for all groups, as respondents may be required to write lengthy amounts of narrative, necessitating a certain level of literacy and articulacy, in this sample, where participants were professionals, making a living from writing, this was not deemed to be problematic.


the questionnaire, issues surrounding web-based questionnaire design (e.g. Couper 2001) were taken into account in order to maximize item and questionnaire response and encourage detailed answers. The questionnaire collected personal and demographic information, before exploring journalistic decision making on homicide stories with questions designed to elicit participants’ opinions on which types of homicide were most newsworthy and why. The questionnaire also explored how journalists dealt more generally with those bereaved by homicide, the findings of which are presented elsewhere. Procedure

Method of analysis IPA has three core theoretical underpinnings: phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography. Idiography, as noted earlier, is about the particular, focusing on depth and detail, while phenomenology is concerned with how people make sense of experiences and events in their lives, and hermeneutics recognizes that this cannot be done directly, but only through a process of interpretation (Smith et al. 2009: 3). Indeed, Smith et al. argue that doing research using IPA involves a double-hermeneutic as ‘the researcher is trying to make sense of the participant trying to make sense’ of their lifeworld. In this research, IPA’s interpretative hermeneutic approach was considered highly appropriate to studying perceptions or understandings of newsworthiness and was a key factor in choosing it over other qualitative methods. Here, it seems, there is a triple hermeneutic at play, as the study entails the researchers interpreting not just journalists’ perceptions of newsworthiness, but also journalists’ perceptions of the news preferences of their readers. This latter point is fundamental, as the ‘market-driven journalism’ perspective argues that, as newspapers are primarily commercial ventures—their main concern being to make money—they aim to write about what the public wants to read about (Buckler 2005: 2). The guidelines for analysing data in IPA studies developed by Smith and colleagues (e.g. Smith et al. 2009: 79–107) were followed. In accordance with the idiographic nature of IPA, the first questionnaire was read several times, the emerging themes documented, connected, titled and a summary table produced. This process was then repeated for each questionnaire, before the themes were integrated and a table of superordinate themes produced. These themes were then presented in a narrative account of the phenomenon, accompanied by quotes from participants. 1215


Journalists were initially contacted by email, telephone or social networking sites, to give them a brief overview of the research, and to ask whether they would be interested in receiving further details. Those who expressed an interest were then emailed an information sheet. Sixteen journalists were initially contacted; 13 asked for further information and ten ultimately participated. Those who decided to participate followed directions, via the information sheet, to an internet link to the questionnaire, which they then completed and submitted electronically. On submission, participants were automatically emailed a debriefing sheet. The process of data collection took six weeks, during the summer of 2010.

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Reflexivity

Analysis and Discussion Before presenting the results of this study, the legal restrictions placed upon journalists when reporting on homicide will be briefly explored in order to contextualize the findings. The media have the right to attend court hearings and to report on them fully and contemporaneously ( Judicial Studies Board 2009: 6). There are, however, exceptions to this general principle, which come in the form of numerous statutory reporting restrictions. For example, under the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980 (s. 8), when criminal proceedings become active in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (i.e. when a suspect is arrested, a warrant for their arrest or summons issued or on oral charge), only ten parts of preliminary hearings may be reported. In addition to basic procedural details, reporters are allowed to print the names, addresses, ages and occupations of the accused, along with the charges they face. When the case is sub judice (‘under consideration’), publication of material other than that specified above, that creates a substantial risk of serious prejudice to active proceedings, may lead to contempt of court charges (Welsh and Greenwood 2002: 158). The danger of contempt of court may be particularly acute when a homicide case comes to trial at a Crown Court, when journalists must be careful to report only what the jury has seen and heard and must be accurate and fair in their reporting (Welsh and Greenwood 2002: 159). In this analysis of journalists’ opinions of what makes a homicide newsworthy, six superordinate themes were identified: (1) ‘perfect’ versus ‘undeserving’ victims; (2) statistical deviance; (3) killers at large; (4) the sensational; (5) serial killers; and (6) unpredictable factors. 1216


As mentioned earlier, the first author has a professional background as a UK tabloid journalist, having worked on a major national tabloid newspaper as a staff news reporter and on the news desk for five years, and in a freelance capacity for other tabloids before and after this time. Specializing in ‘hard news’, which mostly involved crime reporting in various forms, she covered some of the biggest UK homicide cases of recent times. Thus, she came to this research with a uniquely informed ‘insider’s view’ and understanding of the industry, both generally—in terms of the day-to-day workings of a newsroom, the structure, culture, language and jargon used—and specifically with respect to crime and homicide reporting. A good IPA study should contain not only an empathic hermeneutics—where an attempt is made to stand in the participant’s shoes and see their lifeworld through their eyes—but also a questioning hermeneutics—where the researcher should stand back from the participant’s account and ask critical questions, rather than simply accepting it at face value (Smith et al. 2009: 36). The first author is in a privileged position to do this, as she has ‘stood in her participants’ shoes’ as a (former) tabloid reporter, providing an enhanced understanding of their points of view. However, as a qualitative researcher, she has now obtained a more distanced, critical and academic perspective on the issues involved. This dual experience gives a more rounded understanding of the topic, greater empathy with the participants and a solid vantage point from which to shed some critical light on the findings of this research.


‘Perfect’ versus ‘undeserving’ victims This study supported the findings of previous research which has found that newsworthiness is greatly, possibly even primarily, concerned with measuring the ‘worth’ of the life lost. Thus, the homicide of victims whose lives are considered particularly worthy, encompassing the innocent, vulnerable, respectable and/or blameless—such as children, women and the affluent—are considered particularly tragic (e.g. Sorenson et al. 1998: 1514). Perfect victims: children

The age of the victim is crucial. Murders of children will almost always be front page news. (Sam)

Jewkes (2004: viii) argues that disproportionate media reporting of children as victims (or perpetrators) of very serious crimes, such as homicide, and the subsequent public hysteria this engenders, is still largely informed by (increasingly outdated) nineteenth-century ‘idealised images of childhood as a time of innocence’. Participants endorsed this stereotype, attributing the newsworthiness of child victims to their ‘innocence’ and ‘vulnerability’. As Tom noted, child murders are particularly newsworthy: Because of the public revulsion that comes with the death of an ‘innocent’ such as Baby P1 or Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman2.

Or, as Nina said: The murder of a child is an incredibly emotive topic and seen as one of the worst crimes to commit. It is a natural instinct to want to protect children from harm. Anyone who wants to take advantage of a child’s vulnerability is quickly vilified by the media.

Perfect victims: women Previous research has found that female homicide victims are more newsworthy than their male counterparts (e.g. Johnstone et al. 1995; Pritchard and Hughes 1997)—a finding that this study broadly supported. As with children, the newsworthiness of female victims may be partly attributable to dominant social norms which see females as a vulnerable and defenceless group, rendering them in need of protection. As Adam said: It is the disparity of power between victim and murderer that sets the impact. Murderers who target children or women are particularly impactful for the media.

1 ‘Baby P’, real name Peter Connelly, was a 17-month-old baby who died in London in 2007 after sustaining more than 50 injuries over eight months at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother. 2 Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were two 10-year-old schoolgirls who were killed by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Cambridgeshire, UK, in 2002.

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Similar to previous research which has found that children are over-represented in news about homicide (e.g. Sorenson et al. 1998), almost every participant (N = 8) in this study said that the murder of a child is one of the most newsworthy types of homicide there is:

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However, this research presented a more nuanced picture than previous studies, finding that female gender is not necessarily a major factor in predicting newsworthiness in isolation. Rather, certain types or ideals of females were considered highly newsworthy as homicide victims: The murder of young women is also more newsworthy—especially if they are white, attractive, middle class and young. (Jake) Victims who are white, middle class, ideally female and particularly if they are attractive to the majority (not necessarily of men) will get more coverage. (Matt)

A serial killer, still on the loose, whose victims are pretty young girls from good homes, with good education . . . . The victims make the case unusual—and picturesque. A tabloid journalist often thinks about collects first (photographs) and interviews second, because the picture is paramount to the amount of space your story gets in the paper.

An attractive victim, in addition to serving a visual role for newspapers, may also serve as a representation of victim perfection, their lives being deemed, albeit subconsciously, as more worthy than unattractive victims. Although no journalist here made this argument, there is support for this idea in the psychological literature on attractiveness, where it has been found that attractive people are generally preferred to, and are thought to possess more positive traits and characteristics than, unattractive people, known as the ‘beauty is good myth’ (Dion et al. 1972). Given this bias towards physical attractiveness, people may unconsciously judge the victimization of unattractive people as more justifiable than that of attractive people (Seaman et al. 2001). Thus, a picture of an attractive victim serves a dual purpose, being both ‘picturesque’ and a visual encapsulation of a ‘perfect victim’ with all its connotations. Perfect victims: celebrities Although research on homicide newsworthiness rarely includes ‘celebrity’ as an influential factor, perhaps due to the scarcity of such crimes, participants in this study considered ‘celebrity homicides’ to be extremely newsworthy for tabloid newspapers, with half of participants mentioning it as a significant factor and three as within the top three most important factors. As Aaron said: ‘A celebrity who has been murdered is ALWAYS big front page news. Think Jill Dando.’ Journalists attributed this to modern society’s ‘obsession with celebrity’, believing that celebrity 1218


While race and socio-economic status have been found to be influential by previous research (e.g. Sorenson et al. 1998; Paulsen 2003; Peelo et al. 2004), the emphasis that participants placed on attractiveness is a relatively novel finding. Reflecting on the relevance of attractiveness, participants tended to cite the importance of the visual for tabloid newspapers which, Greer (2007: 29) notes, is a frequently overlooked aspect of newsworthiness in crime reporting. Attractive victims, participants argued, present an opportunity for good pictures, which are often at least as important as, or more important than, the story itself. In some cases, reported Rosie, a case that comes with good ‘pix may elevate it to [the] front page’, while Jake said ‘The photograph of an attractive woman always dresses a page up well’. Talking about the ‘perfect tabloid murder’, Natalie gave the example of:


stories increase readership, which is an example of how what is considered news worthy can change as cultural and societal attitudes, interests and norms shift (Greer 2007: 28): Because of our obsession with celebrity, a celebrity murder would inevitably receive more coverage than any other. (Matt) The tabloid media are more and more obsessed with celebrity and anyone who is a household name who commits crime would make big headlines. Celebrity stories sell papers. (Nina)

Perfect co-victims Just as there is a category of homicide victim who may be considered ‘perfect’ or ‘ideal’ in terms of press coverage, this study also found that there is a set of ‘perfect’ co-victims (those bereaved by homicide) whose behaviour and characteristics enhance their newsworthiness. Although this idea has been discussed in previous literature (e.g. Greer 2007: 31), it is not a factor which tends to feature in empirical studies. This study found that, in the initial stages of a homicide (e.g. when a body is found or an investigation launched), a typical characteristic of a ‘perfect’ co-victim is cooperation with the press. Specifically, co-victims willing to give press conferences or interviews to individual newspapers and/or pose for pictures or provide pictures of the victim may make the case significantly more newsworthy than co-victims who refuse all contact with the press. As Sam said: What is important is the co-operation the victim’s family and friends give the press. If they close the door and refuse to speak to the press, then it makes their job more difficult and they may not be able to glean the necessary information required to make it a good story. However if they decide to hold press conferences, give out photographs of the victim, and talk on their door steps about the victim, then it will make the job of the journalist easier, and therefore increase the space it is given in the newspaper article.

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The ‘obsession with celebrity’ referred to by participants has now arguably ‘reached a fever pitch’ in modern culture (Young and Pinsky 2006: 2) and incidents relating to celebrities and celebrity culture are increasingly newsworthy (Rojek 2001). Cashmore (2006: 7) argues that the ‘invisible attachment to the glitzy world of the celebs functions as a lifeline’ for people who are dissatisfied with their own lives. In this sense, celebrities are seen as an ‘ideal’ to aspire to and thus, we might argue, in this context, they are also perfect victims. Indeed, in modern society, celebrities are arguably the most perfect of all victims, as they may be seen to ‘have it all’: wealth, good looks, talent and a glamorous lifestyle. Thus, the loss of a celebrity victim is seen as a particular ‘waste’ of a life. Indeed, it seems that celebrities have become so widely acknowledged as perfect homicide victims who always garner extensive news coverage that—in a gruesome twist—some killers purposely target celebrities as victims in order to attain celebrity status themselves. As Penfold-Mounce (2010: 25) notes, Mijailo Mihajlovic (who killed Sweden’s Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003), Mark Chapman (who killed English singer–songwriter John Lennon in 1980) and Robert Baldo (who killed American actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989) all chose their victims in a ‘parasitic’ bid for personal fame.

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Additionally, just as with victims themselves, certain personal and demographic characteristics of co-victims will further increase their newsworthiness. For instance, Toby observed that the articulacy of a family will enhance their newsworthiness, citing two real-life examples: ‘A particularly articulate family member (Sara Payne, the McCann family) garner much more television and newspaper coverage.’ Jake explains further how co-victims’ traits can increase newsworthiness:

As observed by Jake above, co-victims having any degree of celebrity will increase newsworthiness. Nina used a real-life example to illustrate this: If the victims’ family or friends are famous that will increase the interest in the case. For example when former EastEnders [a popular UK television soap opera] star Brooke Kinsella’s brother was stabbed to death the story gained more coverage than other teenage stabbings. Readers are again drawn in by the celebrity.

Additionally, in general, the closer the co-victim’s relationship to the victim, the more newsworthy they will be. As Matt said: The closer the relationship, the more coverage too. So, for example a chat with a distant cousin would get much less coverage than a chat with a victim’s mother, which tends to get more than for other relatives. The reason is because, again, editors recognise that readers identify with the emotions expressed by those who are interviewed and everyone knows that the emotions felt by a mother are likely to be stronger than those felt by any other relative, with the possible exception of a partner.

‘Perfect’ co-victims will also show emotion, with demonstrative outpourings of grief in press conferences or interviews further enhancing their newsworthiness. As Aaron said, the ‘story becomes EVEN more newsworthy if they appear on TV in tears etc.’. The most newsworthy of all ‘perfect’ co-victims, such as the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, Sarah Payne and Milly Dowler, are the ones who fit all the above categories: they engage with the press, show emotion, are close relatives, and are articulate and ‘respectable’ (Greer 2007: 31). Conversely, co-victims who are not willing to engage with the press or who do not fit the ideal media profile may find that the coverage of their loved one’s homicide is significantly less. Bright (2002) uses the example of the murder of 14-year-old Hannah Williams in 2002, which received minimal coverage in the national press: not only was Hannah herself a non-ideal victim, being a working-class runaway, but, as claimed by the police spokesperson, her (working-class and single) mother was not ‘really press conference material’ either. The idea of non-ideal—or ‘undeserving’—victims will be explored further below. ‘Undeserving’ victims In contrast to those perfect or ideal victims whose lives were considered worthy, their loss a tragic waste, are those victims who are considered ‘undeserving’ due to the type 1220


If a victim has attractive, wealthy, connected—even (ideally) famous—friends and family who live in big houses and drive fancy cars—then that all dresses up very well. In some—but not all—respects, the victim is really only as important as his/her background. They are important because they tend to make more articulate victim impact statements, they do good eulogies from the pulpit, they invariably end up appearing on radio and TV . . . . In another dimension—and regardless of class—friends and family can be very talkative, can provide pictures and effectively help give the story a near-constant supply of legs.


of person they were and the life they led, often those on the margins of society (Greer 2007: 22). Simply put by journalists in this study, homicides involving ‘the underclass’ are not very newsworthy, with examples including: A thug killed by a thug. (Jake) Scum killing scum. Two heroin addicts have a row and one stabs the other over a bag of heroin. (Sam) Old drunken tramp kills old drunken tramp in rundown inner city. (Jake)

Such victims’ lives were thought to be worth less, both to society and to themselves, making their loss not as ‘wasteful’ as a victim with ‘everything to live for’. As Natalie put it:

Several participants commented that such ‘undeserving’ victims do not inspire public sympathy or interest: If somebody is homeless, a drug addict, prostitute or gang member that generally means the media pays less attention to the murder. That is largely because newspapers try to think how much the reader will care about the victim and perceive that they won’t care about the people in the category just mentioned. (Tom)

The lack of public sympathy may be partly due to judgments that such victims have in some way precipitated their fates through risky lifestyle choices or behaviour, such as drug taking, prostitution, living on the streets or involvement in violence. As Matt commented, in the eyes of both editorial staff and the public, such victims have got what they deserve: they ‘had it coming’. In this sense, the murders of these ‘undeserving’ victims serve to reinforce our belief in a just world, where ‘individuals have a need to believe that they live in a world where people generally get what they deserve and deserve what they get’ (Lerner and Miller 1978: 1030). If we can reason that ‘bad’ events such as homicide only happen to ‘bad’ people or are a consequence of ‘bad’ behaviour or choices, we can believe that we will be ‘protected against misfortune by being good and worthy people’ (Janoff-Bulman 1985: 20–1). Thus, we might argue, the homicides of such undeserving victims are un-newsworthy both because there is little public sympathy for them and because such homicides are no surprise—they do not go against the natural order of the world which makes us feel safe—they are, in the words of Natalie and Matt, ‘expected’: For the murder to be a story it has to be a waste of life—not an expected result. (Natalie) The homeless, who are the lowest of the underclass, are expected to die on the streets so if they are murdered, no-one is too surprised. (Matt)

Conversely, the murder of a ‘perfect’ or ‘innocent’ victim challenges our beliefs in a just world (Hafer 2000). Such homicides may disturb our sense of order and feeling of safety; if ‘good’ and ‘innocent’ people can be murdered, then so too can we. Natalie summed up the situation of the ideal and undeserving victim eloquently: The best story will always be the worst story so if you have an angel killed by a devil in the most horrendous of circumstances the lines are clearly drawn for the reader; there can be no misinterpretation of

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It is macabre, but the thought of someone with ‘everything to live for’, perhaps a promising student or an aspiring model (good for collect pics) is going to grab a reader’s attention more than a dead drug user.

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the facts, no doubt that the victim didn’t deserve it and the result is a real sense of loss and empathy because it could have happened to anyone, meaning it could have happened to them.

Statistical deviance The newsworthiness of the homicides of ‘perfect’ victims may also be increased due to their relative rarity, or statistical deviance (e.g. Johnstone et al. 1995: 865; Soothill et al. 2002: 419). As Natalie said:

Unexpected offender characteristics, such as affluence or celebrity, can also increase newsworthiness: On the whole, we like murderers who are rich/famous/attractive/glamorous, etc. Basically for an ideal tabloid murderer, you want someone you would LEAST expect to be a murderer. So there is the surprise element in a story. (Aaron)

However, what is suggested by this study, and not sufficiently recognized in previous research, is that the unusual may incorporate not only victim and offender characteristics, but every aspect of a homicide, including circumstance, motive and method: Basically anything that makes a murder different from the norm elevates its news value. On a basic level, a dull murder is gang-on-gang killers involving knives. These happen all the time. News is something which is ‘new.’ So on motive—crime of passion is always good . . . . Method—the more elaborate the better. Relationship—the more sexual the better. Number of victims—the more the merrier. (Aaron)

Such unusual factors can all elevate ostensibly un-newsworthy homicides, such as those involving a ‘domestic’ element, to front-page news. As Sam said: On the face of it, murders where the victim is known to the offender are often first dismissed as ‘it’s a domestic’ . . . . However as more details emerge, the reasoning behind why or indeed how, a husband murders his wife or vice versa can also make it more newsworthy. For example the wife who poisoned her husband’s fruitcake because he was having an affair or the husband who smothers his wife with a pillow at her request because she has a terminal illness. In these cases it is clearly no longer ‘ just a domestic’ and adds to its news value.

It is not merely unusual methods or motives that can enhance newsworthiness: any unusual detail may serve this function, as Tom used a real-life case to illustrate: There was a murder of a woman in Medway by her train guard ex-husband. It only made a few paragraphs, even in the local paper and nothing in the nationals. But when the case came to court it was revealed that the murderer recorded the death and told the woman: ‘You are the weakest link, goodbye.3’ That turned it from nothing in the nationals to spreads. 3 ‘You are the weakest link, goodbye’ was the catchphrase of Anne Robinson, host of the UK version of The Weakest Link television game show, when a contestant was voted off.

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There has to be a hook, something unusual about the case. ‘Newsworthy’ murder victims might include; a child; a celebrity/known figure; a member of the middleclass to upperclass; an attractive-looking victim . . . . The fact is when murders are becoming almost commonplace, there has to be an element of the unusual to interest a reader to such an extent that they will read beyond three paragraphs if the murder hasn’t occurred locally.


With the majority of participants (N = 7) citing the importance of novelty in the reporting of homicide, this research therefore strongly supports previous quantitative analyses. However, it also adds to such research in highlighting the subtle and nuanced features of the unusual. As illustrated by some of the above examples, the problem with quantitative research in this area is that statistical deviance may go beyond the simple variables of victim and offender race, age or gender, or even motive or methods, and extend to unpredictable and unique elements that cannot be foreseen and pre-coded for, such as the unexpected use of a famous phrase (‘You are the weakest link, goodbye’). ‘Killer at large’

Most importantly of all is whether the perpetrator is still at large and still at it. (Adam)

There were several reasons given for why such murders are considered particularly newsworthy, including the element of danger and fear with the killer amongst the public, ready to strike again; public interest in reporting; round-the-clock live news coverage; a dramatic ongoing story; and the lack of reporting restrictions: With the killer on the loose there is an element of real fear, terror as well as a public interest in reporting the crime. (Natalie) Serial killers/on the run—With 24 hour news coverage this is always gripping. (Sam)

Several journalists used the case of Raoul Moat4 —which occurred shortly before the time of data collection—as an example of the newsworthiness of a killer who evades immediate apprehension by the police. Tom, for instance, said: A story that gains momentum and builds up over time is also crucial. For example the case of Raoul Moat was on the face of it a tale of domestic revenge but the fact he was on the run for several days made it front page for a week.

Newsworthiness may also be increased in such cases due to the extended amount of time that the press are given to gather, and print, information about the perpetrator, as restrictions on reporting do not come into effect until—as noted earlier—the case becomes sub judice and only basic facts can be reported: It is worth noting the large amount of legal restrictions that are placed on a case once an offender has been charged, therefore during the period before anyone has been caught, especially if the offender is ‘on the run’ newspapers have more free rein to write details about the person being sought, again making it more newsworthy. (Sam)

4 Raoul Moat was the subject of a police manhunt in north-east England in 2010, after shooting three people. After being cornered by police after six days, he shot himself, taking his own life.

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A third distinct theme in participants’ accounts was the idea of a ‘killer at large’ or ‘on the run’: an offender who has killed once, is likely to kill again, and is being sought by the police in a ‘national manhunt’. Six journalists in this research mentioned this as a relevant factor to newsworthiness, with two citing it as one of the three most important factors:

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Sensationalism: extreme violence or brutality This study supported previous findings that homicides that are particularly violent, heinous or shocking may also be considered especially newsworthy (Chermak 1995), with seven participants naming the degree of sensationalism of a homicide to be important in determining newsworthiness and five judging it to be one of the three most important factors. Toby, for example, talks of the newsworthiness of ‘especially violent or depraved killers’, the nature of whose crimes are ‘more extreme’, while Natalie cites ‘the severity and intensity of the crime (e.g. a frenzied knife attack v a knifing)’ as factors that can increase a homicide’s coverage. Or, as Jake puts it:

Previous literature (e.g. Duwe 2000: 392) has argued that such crimes are considered highly newsworthy because the general public are thought to be particularly fascinated by ‘extreme’ acts of violence. This idea was echoed by Adam: ‘It is the case due to simple human nature, i.e. people are drawn by the macabre and by extremes.’ From a market-driven journalism perspective, ‘any newspaper’s success depends on its ability to assess accurately the interests of its readers’ (Bernt et al. 2000: 1.) Thus, if journalists believe that the public are ‘drawn by the macabre’, then they will aim to deliver what they want, as this will increase circulation (Buckler 2005: 19.) As Matt said: Editors etc believe the fascination they feel about the murders and their circumstances will be shared by the readers and therefore continue buying papers.

However, there may be a limit to the degree of violence that is regarded as newsworthy: The more brutal the crime, the more attention it is likely to get, up to a point. There is a level of violence which cannot be expressed in a newspaper and if it is required, it is likely to get less coverage. (Matt)

This may help to explain why some particularly gruesome murders with otherwise newsworthy features do not receive as extensive coverage as might be expected. One recent example might be the murder of the respectable, white, British grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley, who was killed while holidaying in Tenerife in 2011. Jennifer was stabbed to death and then decapitated in the busy tourist resort, her head paraded on the street by her killer. Although the case received moderate media coverage, the extreme violence involved may have prevented it being more widely reported. Serial killers One of the most common findings in the literature on the newsworthiness of homicide is that multiple victims increase news coverage (e.g. Johnstone et al. 1995; Paulsen 2003; Gruenewald et al. 2009). This study supported these findings; as two participants put it: when it comes to victims, ‘the more the merrier’ (Aaron, Jake). The term ‘multiple victims’ in the literature refers to any offender who claims the 1224


The way the murder was committed, especially if torture was involved or the death had some sexual aspect to it. Man shoots man dead is one thing, but man ties up another man, stabs him repeatedly, cuts off his ear and then slits his throat so savagely that his head is nearly hanging off—that’s far more newsworthy.


lives of more than one victim, which could include domestic incidents, mass murders or terrorist acts. However, it was cases of serial killing that participants in this study believed to be the most newsworthy of all types of homicide (citing the UK cases of notorious serial killers such as Peter Sutcliffe, Dennis Nilsen, Steve Wright, Stephen Griffiths, Ian Brady and Fred West as examples), with eight journalists citing it as a factor elevating newsworthiness and four as one of the top three most important factors. As Aaron said: Virtually no story more newsworthy than a serial killer such as the Suffolk prostitute serial killer Steve Wright.

Serial killers are definitely up there in newsworthy terms because there are multiple victims, a man hunt, appeals, the potential for copy cats, the possibilities are endless because even when they get caught, there is the trial, then there is the long years spent behind bars—during which they get attacked, get freed early (enter public outcry), re-offend, or on a very basic level, they end up befriending someone on the outside who then sells their story to the press etc etc.

Amongst the most newsworthy of all serial killers may be those whose victims fit the ‘ideal’ type, as noted by Natalie: A serial killer, still on the loose, whose victims are pretty young girls from good homes, with good educations.

Thus, when ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ Peter Sutcliffe started killing what the police and press labelled as ‘respectable’ or ‘innocent’ women—including a shop assistant, bank clerk, secretary and student—having previously targeted prostitutes, the case became even more newsworthy and more police resources were given over to the inquiry (Ward Jouve 1986). However, due to the scale, rarity and sensationalism of such crimes, even traditionally undeserving victims, whose behaviour may be judged to be blameworthy in some way and who we have seen are usually amongst the least reported of all victims, can become front-page news and afforded sympathy when they are victims of a serial killer. In this context, Natalie, Tom and Matt all used the example of prostitutes, who are frequently seen as members of the ‘underclass’ and may be perceived as having bought their fate upon themselves due to their risky lifestyle choices and behaviour, even initiating contact with their killer. However, when they are victims of a serial offender, they become news: One prostitute dead is barely going to cause a ripple through a newsdesk. Three plus dead in roughly the same area and you have a story—a new Ripper headline. (Natalie) If a person murdered one prostitute it might not make very much. Several, as in the case of Steve Wright, and you have a serial killer and turns it from a few paragraphs to front pages for weeks. (Tom)

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Cases of serial homicide combine almost all of the key elements of newsworthiness explored thus far. They are statistically deviant; the offender is ‘at large’; the crimes often contain unusual elements; they may be particularly violent or sexual; and there are multiple co-victims to talk publically about their loss. Even after their incarceration, serial killers remain newsworthy many years after the events, providing stories with almost endless ‘legs’. As Jake said:

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Cases of serial killing were considered so newsworthy by participants in this study that they were deemed amongst the only cases in which offenders surpass their victims in terms of newsworthiness and memorability. As Natalie said: It is often the victims that are remembered rather than the offender unless there is something very unusual about the case such as a serial killer (in which case the victims are more easily forgotten).

Indeed, cases of serial killing may be so newsworthy that the offender may actually gain an infamy akin to celebrity. As Aaron said:

As Schmid (2005: 4) said in his book Natural Born Celebrities: ‘In a culture defined by celebrity, serial killers . . . are the biggest stars of all.’ Indeed, like the killers discussed earlier who target celebrity victims, some serial killers may commit their crimes specifically in order to become a ‘star’. Colin Ireland’s killing of five gay men in the UK in 1993, for instance, after which he rang The Sun newspaper and the police to boast of his crimes, has been attributed to a desire for infamy and identity in an otherwise unremarkable life (Gekoski 1998: 247). Unpredictable factors The above results suggest that homicide newsworthiness is generally increased by perfect victims, statistical deviance, killers on the run, extreme brutality and serial killers. However, analysis of journalists’ responses further highlight how homicides that do not fulfil any of the above criteria, and thus might be expected to be un-newsworthy, may still be rendered so by other, more unpredictable and less easily isolated factors. One such factor mentioned by four participants was a personal interest from particular newspaper editorial staff, usually the editor themselves. Natalie, for instance, told of a story she worked on involving the murder of a man on Christmas Eve who had seven children which, in her opinion, was made more newsworthy by an editor’s individual interest: Obviously this was a very sad story, but I still only expected it to make a page lead. However, the editor at the time was a father and it must have struck a chord because it was made into a double page spread at the ‘front of the book’. Obviously the quotes from the wife made the piece, they were particularly strong, but it was the editor’s personal interest and reaction to the story that made it more newsworthy for our paper and less so in others.

Aaron also used the example of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which, he argued, was kept in the media spotlight over a prolonged period of time partly due to the personal interest of one particular newspaper editor: The tone of our coverage is set by the editor . . . . A good example is the Stephen Lawrence murder. This became a huge cause celebre for the Daily Mail. Stephen Lawrence—young black kid

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A serial killer is ALWAYS, ALWAYS a big story. Doesn’t matter if they are young or old, rich or poor. Serial killing rarely happens and when it does the public lap it up. Serial killers are almost always boring people in their normal lives who wouldn’t ordinarily be newsworthy—Peter Sutcliffe (unattractive lorry driver); Dennis Nilson (non-descript civil servant); Steve Wright (forklift truck driver)—yet they will all go down in history.


from inner city London—isn’t Daily Mail territory but the editor Paul Dacre felt very passionately about the story and how it was a particularly nasty racist murder and campaigned on the issue for years—even naming the killers on his front page and branding them murderers even though they had not been charged by police. This was utterly unprecedented.

The basic rule of thumb is we are more interested in the murders of people who are rich/famous/ attractive/glamorous/young. I do want to stress that there is no hard and fast rule. The murder of Stephen Lawrence—an unglamorous black teenager on an estate in London—became a huge story for the tabloids.

Why, then, was Stephen’s murder so heavily covered by the press? One argument, as expounded by Greer (2007: 28), is that some homicides may be particularly newsworthy in a particular society at a particular time, tying in to current affairs, issues and debates such as, for example, racism, paedophilia or institutional failure. Tom gave the example of teenage knife crime as one such recent issue: In 2008 a series of teenage murders in London meant that every killing of a teenager was guaranteed huge coverage. In this case the issue snow balled. At one stage if a victim was 20 and the murder did not appear particularly newsworthy then it would make very little. Ridiculously if the victim was 19 it would make a page lead simply because they were a teenager.

While, in the case of Stephen’s murder, the issue of racism in general and the culture of racism in the police and other criminal justice agencies in particular was bought to the fore. Not only was the crime itself, in Aaron’s words, a ‘particularly nasty racist murder’, but the police (mis)handling of the case was indicative of what the subsequent Macpherson Report (Macpherson 1999) deemed institutional racism in the police service itself. Thus, as Soothill et al. (2004: 9) argue, Stephen’s murder grew into a ‘mega case’, as it tapped into the growing wider concern in the United Kingdom at the time about how the police handled racist incidents. The newsworthiness of Stephen’s murder might also, in part, have been symbolic of broader indications of social change at the time. For, although Stephen was not, on the face of it, an ‘ideal’ victim, it soon became apparent that he and his family were ‘respectable’ and Stephen an ‘innocent’. The family were religious, hard-working and law-abiding, while Stephen himself was studying for A levels and hoped to become an architect. Conversely, Stephen’s suspected killers5 were racist young white male aggressors who were gang members with previous criminal convictions. In this sense, it might be argued that this case was something of a landmark moment in which a division 5

Two of the suspects, David Norris and Gary Dobson, were sentenced to life imprisonment for Stephen’s murder in 2012.

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The murder of Stephen Lawrence, as noted in the introduction, is a good example of a homicide that should, according to the criteria identified in this and other research, have attracted little or no news coverage. He was not a traditionally ‘perfect’ victim, the crime was not an unusual one, did not contain sensational elements, or involve a serial killer. Indeed, his murder was of a type that is amongst the least-reported in the press: the street killing of a black youth by other youths (Soothill et al. 2004: 9). Yet, despite this, the case became one of the most heavily reported of recent years. This illustrates, as Aaron put it, how there ‘is no hard and fast rule’ when it comes to newsworthy homicides:

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between respectable and disreputable black male victims could be perceived, with a subcategory of ideal victims and co-victims emerging. Conclusions

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In this research, an attempt was made to investigate journalists’ perceptions of, and explanations of the meanings underlying, the selection of some homicide stories over others. To do this, the qualitative method of IPA was chosen, chiefly for its interpretative hermeneutic approach, which is ideally suited to studying perceptions or understandings of newsworthiness. The empathetic hermeneutic element of the methodology allowed the researchers to investigate not only the journalists’ perceptions of newsworthiness, but also the journalists’ perceptions of the perceptions of their readers. As observed earlier, this is a vital consideration, as the concept of market-driven journalism argues that newspapers are primarily commercial ventures concerned with making money; to make money, they need to sell papers and, to sell papers, they need to write about what the public want to read about. Analysis found that, despite the importance of unpredictable factors, journalists clearly believe that certain types of murder—involving ‘ideal’ victims, unusual features, extreme brutality and serial killers—are almost always of interest to the public, while certain other types—involving ‘undeserving’ victims in commonplace circumstances— are almost always not. Therefore, in order to sell newspapers and boost circulation, they use this as a guide for what to report on. These findings appear to suggest that the key factors in determining the newsworthiness of homicide remain fundamentally the same as the sensationalist penny press of the nineteenth century (Johnstone et al. 1995: 869). For, just as the ‘Jack the Ripper’ Whitechapel murders of 1888 were covered in minute detail by the tabloids of the day, 100 years later, the murders of the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ Peter Sutcliffe were one of the 13 most heavily reported of all cases from 1977 to 1999 (Soothill et al. 2002). Supported by evidence from this study, both cases can be seen as archetypically ‘perfect tabloid murders’, involving: a serial killer, attractive young women (albeit largely sex workers), extreme violence, sexual elements, a killer on the loose and a murder mystery. If journalists’ perceptions of their readers’ preferences are correct, the conclusion that follows from this apparent stasis over what constitutes the perfect murder is that the public interest in certain types of particularly macabre murders has stayed constant across nearly 200 years. Yet, other evidence suggests that journalists’ perceptions of their readers’ news pre ferences may be becoming increasingly out of touch. The idea that today’s public are fascinated by violent crime has recently been challenged (e.g. Curtain et al. 2007). Indeed, as noted by participants in this study, editors may simply assume that what interests them will interest the public. Yet, when tested by direct comparison, editors are often found to be inaccurate, underestimating, for instance, interest in government and politics, and overestimating interest in religion, sport, fashion and crime (e.g. Beam 1995; Bernt et al. 2000). Quoting a national US survey by NewsLab in 2000, in which a third of people said a major reason they did not watch more local television news was that it carried too much crime, Buckler (2005: 19) argues that the ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ rule of thumb may be outdated. If this is the case, the newsworthiness of homicide may be being determined not by readers’ interests, but by journalists’ false beliefs in readers’ interests.


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However, journalists’ perceptions of their readers’ preferences seem to be supported by newspaper circulation figures. For example, prominent stories about the mysterious abduction of Madeleine McCann (a pretty middle-class white girl) in Portugal in 2007 apparently increased newspaper circulation figures by an estimated 40,000–50,000 copies a day (House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee 2010: 85). This, albeit limited, finding seems to support journalists’ perceptions of readers’ preferences. Given the apparent contradiction between this finding and research that suggests editors may overestimate readers’ interest in crime, more research needs to be undertaken on readership preferences, paying particular attention to specific types of crime. This study has found that journalists clearly believe that certain types of homicide are particularly newsworthy, which is consistent with research about what types of homicide are most over-reported. Yet, if these beliefs are a result of traditional newsroom culture and assumptions rather than reader preferences, then they only reflect what is newsworthy to those who make the news, not to those who consume it. As noted previously, the questioning hermeneutics involved in IPA was also a key factor for its employment in this research, as the first author’s background as a tabloid reporter puts her in a unique position to ask critical questions and identify apparent anomalies in the data and possible reasons for these. For instance, one inconsistency between this and previous quantitative research (e.g. Sorenson et al. 1998) is the failure of all but one participant to identify race as a crucial factor in decision making about newsworthiness. Had the first author not had a background in tabloid journalism, plausible explanations might be attributed to race being a less prominent news issue in the United Kingdom than the United States (where most research in this field has been conducted), or being subsumed and considered either implicitly or explicitly within other factors such as what makes a victim ‘ideal’ (with some participants, for instance, mentioning ‘white, middle-class females’ generally). However, in the first author’s experience, race does play a significant role in determining homicide newsworthiness in the tabloid press. As a tabloid journalist, she consistently found that newspapers were more likely to run stories involving white than black and minority ethnic victims. Although these experiences date back some six years, they are supported by one participant’s comments about the tabloid he currently works for: ‘My bosses are not overtly keen on people from ethnic minorities . . . . If gypsies are involved in a murder—the view here will generally be that our readers don’t care, the bosses don’t care’ (Jake). He further commented: ‘When certain types of ethnic minority is involved in killing one of their own, it helps underline the deeply racist view that “this is what they do to each other”.’ Other ‘sensitive’ factors such as disability and sexuality may also, in the first author’s experience, significantly influence decisions about homicide newsworthiness. It is thus hypothesized that the failure of this research to identify such factors—contrary to both previous quantitative research and the first author’s experience—is due to issues of social desirability, with participants being unwilling to admit to what could be construed as socially unacceptable attitudes on their, or their organization’s, part. If this is the case, quantitative methodologies such as content analysis, media distortion analysis or large-scale anonymous surveys may be more suitable methods to investigate the more sensitive aspects of newsworthiness. To conclude, this research constitutes the first UK study of its type, by using the qualitative method of IPA to garner journalists’ opinions of which homicides are the

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most newsworthy and why. The findings of this study support previous research that has found that homicides involving ideal victims, unusual features, extreme brutality and serial killers are particularly newsworthy, while those involving undeserving victims in commonplace circumstances are not. Moreover, it has identified factors that previous analyses have largely failed to isolate, such as the newsworthiness of attractive victims, celebrity homicides, perfect co-victims, killers at large and the importance of unpredictable factors such as individual decision making and societal context. In identifying and exploring such factors, we hope that this research has begun to fill the ‘empirical void’ (Gruenewald et al. 2009: 262) in the literature about the newsworthiness of homicide.

This research was conducted as part of the first author’s doctoral research (currently awaiting viva), supervised by the co-authers. Her studies were funded, in part, by a Middlesex University Studentship.

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