Study Finds Canadian News Coverage of Police Deaths Heavily Favors State Perspectives Over Civilian Voices
A computational analysis of 4,000 Canadian news articles over 25 years found that reporting on police-involved deaths features state bureaucrat perspectives nearly three times more often than civilian perspectives. The study, which developed a novel analytical framework called PerspectiveGap, examined how media narratives around policing are constructed. The findings suggest potential systemic imbalances in how news media represent accountability in cases of police-involved deaths.
Researchers conducted the largest known computational analysis of Canadian news narratives about police-involved deaths, examining 4,000 articles spanning the last 25 years. Using a novel computational model called PerspectiveGap grounded in sociological research on media representation of policing, they found that state bureaucrats' perspectives appear in coverage at nearly three times the rate of perspectives from other public members, including relatives, community members, eyewitnesses, lawyers, and civil liberties groups. A substantial portion of articles contained no civilian viewpoints, though civilian representation has increased in recent years. The study noted qualitative differences in how perspectives are presented: state bureaucrats' accounts tend to be clinical and procedural, while civilian discourse carries considerably more emotional valence. The researchers suggest their PerspectiveGap framework can be adapted to analyze media narratives around policing and accountability in other jurisdictions.
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- arXiv cs.CLCenter
Quantifying Media Representation Dynamics Across 25 Years of News Reporting on Policing-related Deaths
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