Coverage of crime news in the media- a qualitative content analysis of two selected

Abstract

This study examines the prominence given to crime news stories in two of Ghana’s foremost newspapers, the Daily Graphic and Daily Guide, because literature has established dearth of studies on coverage of crime news in Ghana. Therefore with insights from the agenda setting and the gender theories, this study seeks to examine and investigate prominence given to crime stories, the types of crime and gender of perpetrators in the crime news stories covered in the selected newspapers in 2019. The study employs qualitative approach and qualitative content design to carry out content analysis of 159 crime news stories within the period study. Thematic analysis of findings reveals that the Daily Guide gave more prominence to crime news stories than the Daily Graphic. Again, the study established that violent crimes were the dominant nature of crimes covered by the newspapers, whereas political crimes were the least covered within the study period. The study further discloses a variance in the gender patterns of perpetrators of crime news stories that presents males as being more prone to crimes in general, and violent crimes in particular, than females. The study recommends that newspapers should aim at fair representation of crime news as against other news items covered in their editions. The fairness should manifest in the frequency of reportage, as well as the prominence in the placement of crime news stories in editions of the newspapers.