Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Criminal Justice

Advisor

Dale Brooker

Abstract

News organizations at both the local and national level report current events through many platforms, including print media, online news media, television programming, and social media posting. All these mediums have virtually unlimited reach as the internet, social media, and smartphones have proliferated globally. A popular topic reported by the media is crime. This study was focused on how crime, specifically auto theft, has been reported on by New Jersey web-based news organizations and public officials in the past 5 years. To obtain a local perspective, three news organizations were randomly selected from the News Bank archive, and all articles related to car theft/auto theft were purposely sampled, published 2017–2022, since the implementation of bail reform in New Jersey in 2017. A single qualitative case study using thematic analysis was employed using Gerbner’s cultivation theory. The latent themes detected included the bulk of web-based news articles sampled that demonstrated objectivity that coincided with police information, despite increases in the frequency of auto theft, it was not framed as a problem, and public officials expressed concerns about the increasing number of stolen vehicles in New Jersey. Although auto theft has increased, none of the messaging by local news media or public officials in those stories rose to the level of fear cultivation. The findings of this study have implications for positive social change in creating an increased understanding of how local news media and local public officials portray certain property crimes, which is not something that has been studied in this specific state and for this specific crime. This kind of research can be foundational in working toward assessment of law and policy changes and their impact on crime and public perception.

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