Seventeenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Crime has been a common feature of media coverage within the U.S. for many years. While the mechanisms by which people get their news has become increasingly online, this affords the opportunity for people to learn about instances of crime on a larger scale, including through listservs. This research examines two years of news media coverage from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020 of 41 female educator sex offenders sent by the People True Crime listserv in comparison with coverage of those same offenders by their local ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC news affiliates. Prior qualitative research on media coverage of crime typically focuses on framing of offenders through the language used to describe them but less research has focused on the photographs of offenders included in news media coverage. Using visual ethnography through examining pre-existing visual representations, this project examines the types of photos included in local and national news media coverage as devices that shape responses to humanize and de-humanize educator sex offenders.