Analysis of Newspaper Coverage

On January 3rd, 1999 a 29-year-old man pushed a 32-year-old woman to her death under a subway train. In the aftermath of this crime, a media firestorm was created, as this followed some other instances of seemingly random violence against New Yorkers. The aspect of this case that seemed to ignite this firestorm was that the accused man was a mentally ill individual who was living alone in the city, and had been in and out of state services and hospitals throughout his life. Newspaper articles on this case seemed to represent all points of view, but when looked at more closely there seems to be some missing. The way the newspaper media covered this particular case, reflects the inability of certain journalists to remain objective when writing on a highly controversial and inflammatory subject.

One of the angles taken by journalists on this case was a sympathetic one. By far the easiest and here most honorable person to be sympathetic to here is the victim. There are a number of articles that focus on the victim, her friends and family, what she has aspired to do in her life, and what the future could have held. Also, when writing this type of analysis on the victim there seems to be a curious lack of facts that paint the victim in an alternate light than that of a superior individual who never seems to have any detractors. Now, it might be necessary to note that it remains to be seen whether negative information on the victim is crucial to this case or not, but until information like this is printed it is not known.

Most of the sympathetic articles on the attacker deal with his inability to stay in any helpful program for the mentally ill that might have had a positive effect on his life if he stayed for an extended period of time. Journalists use quotes from mental health professionals that all seem to point to the failure of these facilities in funding and staff. And it generally seems in most cases of this nature that medical staff is on the side of the mentally ill individual, and the interviews on behalf of the victim are always on the side of the victim.

Obviously, the converse side of the previous point of view is an unsympathetic angle on both the victim and the attacker. An unsympathetic angle on the victim in this case is completely missing. Of course, this might not be the fault of the reporters because of the randomness of this incident, but as was mentioned earlier, the victim here was basically made to seem untouchable.

There is an almost opposite negative response to the attacker simply because he is the one who caused the death of an innocent woman. The articles that use this angle seem to contain the point of view of the residents of the city of New York as it is them who feel left alone and scared here. And it is essentially too easy to not use the main emotional tactic of this negative position; fear. Fear is possibly the most powerful tool that journalists can use since it involves being obsessive on the happenings of the city, which then involves an obsessive attitude in reading the newspaper. It is indeed scary to think that you can be killed when leisurely waiting for the subway, but this type of incident could occur at any single moment in our lives and to fear it is truly irrational.

Phyllis Kaniss, the author of "Making Local News", speaks on the hierarchy that exists during news making; "In most large, complex organizations, the major tasks of the organization are carried out through a combination of centralized policy-setting and relatively independent staff activities. Top management delegates decision making to staff members on different levels of the organization, each with their own set of tasks and objectives" (71). Here, Kaniss agrees that newspaper reporters do have their own set of tasks and objectives when deciding what stories to choose and how to present them. And although she later explains that she does believe that reporters remain objective, quoting some actual people in the business, this demonstrates that she does understand that these individuals do have their own motivations and their own set of beliefs and morals. In my opinion, it is not so hard to believe that many journalists, either consciously or unconsciously, activate their emotions in their writing. This is simply because it is extremely difficult not to, and I would say that the type of people who are able to remain objective from their emotions usually do not choose this type of profession. It is usually the professions who tip the scales of justice one way or another who embrace this quality frankly because they are required to do so, such as judges or lawyers. In cases such as this one, where both sides to an issue are highly inflammatory, you find that most reporters return to the safe area, which includes an almost religious take on the victim and her death, and the use of fear tactics to incite the interest of the residents of New York City.

"Virgin or Vamp", written by Helen Benedict, is designed to bring down the inner working of the media by informing the public of their blatantly biased exploitation of sex crimes. The fact that this particular case is not a sex crime restricts us to only discuss some of her observations on the media, and not the specific cases that she cites. Benedict fights for equal treatment for the victim of sex crimes, and states that the behavior towards these victims is declining in the media. But she does point out that the media does tend to focus on the victim's story and not the background information of the attacker to put his/her actions in context. "No one can change the voyeuristic tastes of the public, but a crime story about the criminal, his motives, his life, his actions, can be made just as exciting as a story about a victim" (265). In a case such as this one, more articles that explain the facts of the attacker can help to reduce feat tactics attempted by anyone. Out of our collection, I found only one article that correctly gives the audience enough background information for them to become a knowledgeable reader; it is written by N.R. Kleinfield with Kit Roane.

Concerning the case and its eventual outcome, I do not believe that it is or should be as incendiary a topic as many of these articles suggest. And it certainly cannot be compared to the downright brutal nature of the cases that Benedict comments on. In my opinion there can be a final ruling on the terrible events that occurred on January 3rd, 1999: Andrew Goldstein, the mentally ill individual needed the assistance of a group home type of service that the state needs to provide, and Kendra Webdale, the victim was just the recipient of a random act of violence. I do not feel that it is necessary for Goldstein to serve any prison sentence as it solves nothing and serves no purpose.

Now, it would be naïve to believe that either every newspaper journalist cannot remain objective, or that every newspaper journalist does remain objective; so of course I believe that there exists a combination of the two. However, the reporters that work on highly controversial topics do probably have a higher tendency to make claims that incite inflammatory reactions from the public. This of course does not include those articles that are purely informational and educational, and who serve the reader in a very basic way that creates context for further study. The sad truth that I have discovered is that none of this group of articles falls into this category. Is there no place left for this simple type of journalism? Or are the reporters just conforming to the diminished standards of the public, who require that they are continuously entertained no matter what the price? These are questions that I am almost certain will remain unanswered.

Works Cited

Kaniss, Phyllis. Making Local News. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Benedict, Helen. Virgin or Vamp. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Assorted newspaper articles from the New York Times.