Hasnain says:

Great read that comes with well sourced data and analysis - helps inform the recent reporting / discussions around crime waves in SF.

"Additionally, Mejia said that when the media covers crime, it tends to focus on individual incidents, particularly unusual-seeming ones. That’s why shootings in neighborhoods with traditionally high crime rates get relatively less coverage, or no coverage at all. But when a Louis Vuitton store gets broken into in a high-income part of town, that feels unusual and surprising, and is thus amplified.

Sensationalized media coverage of crime thus contributes to wide-scale misperceptions of crime trends. Meijia said it also engenders a feeling of hopelessness because it often does not cover solutions or efforts to change the problem, or look at underlying issues.

“It’s a hard thing to do, name responsibility and think of solutions,” Mejia said. “Traditionally coverage has not done that or doesn’t try to do that.”"

Posted on 2022-02-07T20:08:16+0000