Continuity and Change in Mass-Mediated Crime Coverage: Content Analyses of Newspapers, Television and Web Media

This article maps the development of the crime coverage in Danish mass media from 2002 to 2008. Fictional entertainment programmes as well as factual news representations have been systematically studied. Empirical data include samples from newspapers, television and web media. We find that editorial differentiation has increased in competing newspapers and television channels. Web media, on the other hand, show no signs of such segmentation. On the contrary, we detect a high degree of similarity between online crime presentations across the board. In terms of fiction, the traditional detective stories still prevail on public service television, while forensics-driven crime series of the CSI type are increasing their relative share of commercial TV channels. We claim that these aspects of continuity and change may be interpreted as a domestication of the so-called CSI effect, and discuss how fictional crime mediation influences factual reporting and vice versa.