Winter 1998

Children and Violence

In this edition, we examine ways in which we report on children and violence. We travel to the sites of the five recent and highly publicized school shootings, then journey into the private realm of family violence, as seen through the eyes of children who witness it. From there, we move into courtrooms and juvenile detention centers, and also get a glimpse of adolescent girls’ increasing involvement with crime. Then, we take a look at how customary methods of coverage shape public perception and policymaking in the arena of child and juvenile crime. Finally, editors at Chicago’s two newspapers take us inside their decision-making when it comes to coverage of children and violence.

Children and Violence: The Witness. The Victim. The Accused.
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
School Shootings: National and Local Perspectives.
Making Sense Out of a Tragedy
Don’t Report What You Don’t Know
By John Schwartz
Restraint and Empathy Defined Reporting in Pearl, Mississippi
By Deborah Skipper
Context, Contacts and Accuracy Were Key in Paducah, Kentucky
By Jim Paxton
Voicing the Community’s Horror Worked Well in Jonesboro, Arkansas
By John W. Troutt Jr.
The Freedom Forum’s Critique of The Sun’s Reporting on the Westside Shootings
Sensitive Early Reporting Opened Up Good Leads in Edinboro, Pennsylvania
By Bob Lloyd
Giving Readers Ways to Heal and to Help in Springfield, Oregon
By Jim Godbold
When Children Witness Violence: What Happens Next?
Mapping Children’s Roadway to Violence: The Early Years
By Claudia Glenn Dowling
Interview with Photographer Donna Ferrato (2 comments)
Children’s Exposure to Violence
A Critical Lens for Reporting on Violence
By Joy D. Osofsky and Howard J. Osofsky
Juveniles and Crime: The Courts. The Lock-up. And Girls.
Inside the Juvenile Justice System
Lifting the Veil of Secrecy
By Jill Wolfson and John Hubner
The Courts and the Media: Improving the Dialogue
By The Honorable William J. O’Neil
When Juveniles Are Locked Up (2 comments)
A Reporter Uncovers Abuse in a System Few People Know Exists
By Mary Hargrove
Girls and Juvenile Violence (1 comment)
Stories Rarely Told
By Elizabeth Mehren
Media and Juvenile Violence: The Connecting Threads.
Media and Juvenile Violence: The Connecting Threads
By David Doi
What Numbers Can Tell Us
The Violence Reporting Project:
A New Approach to Covering Crime
By Jane Ellen Stevens
Measuring the Effects of Changing the Way
By Lori Dorfman and Esther Thorson
Youth and Race on Local TV News
By Katie Woodruff
The Superpredator Script
By Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. and Shanto Iyengar
Riding the Crime Wave
Why Words We Use Matter So Much
By Jerome Miller
City Coverage of Juvenile Crime: The View from Chicago.
Parents’ Warning: Remember the Children.
By Nigel Wade
Editors’ Question: Do We Fail Our Children?
By Robert Blau
Truth and Reconciliation: Reporting the Horrors of Apartheid.
Introduction
How Journalists Tell These Stories Depends on Who They Are and Where They Work
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
Showing Faces, Hearing Voices, Tugging at Emotions
Televising the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
By Joe Thloloe
Newspaper Management Keeps Quiet About Its Role in Apartheid
In the Afrikaans Press, Some Reporters Decide to Testify
By Tim du Plessis
Questioning If Guilt Without Punishment Will Lead to Reconciliation
The Black Press Relives Its Own Horrors and Seeks Justice
By Mathatha Tsedu
‘Struggling for Memory Against Forgetting’
English-Language Newspapers May Have Been Too Timid, Even Collaborated
By Pippa Green
Journalist’s Trade
Hey Newsboys & Girls—Getting Injured Without Workers’ Compensation Builds Character!
By Marc Linder
Two Years of Living Electronically
Covering Breaking Foreign News for the Internet
By Kari Huus
Dancing to a Different Tune
Can Traditional Media Compete With the New Kids on the Block?
By Caitlin Anderson
Books
Deploring the State of Beltway Journalism
By John Herbers
Cataloging Journalism’s Concerns
By Thomas Winship
Locating the Citizens’ Pulse
By Seth Effron
Letters to the Editor
Letters
Curator’s Corner
Public Pressure for a Responsible Press
By Bill Kovach
Nieman Notes
The Scandal: Coverage from the Heartland
By Kenneth Freed
Lasting Connections of a Nieman Year
By Patricia Guthrie