Murder in the News: An Inside Look at How Television Covers Crime

Television news anchor Robert Jordan Jr. draws from forty-seven years of news experiences to provide an eye-opening look at how news programs decide which murders to cover and which ones to ignore. Jordan takes readers behind the scenes into the big city newsrooms of Chicago. Here split-second decisions are made on where to send limited resources when dozens of shootings and several murders are occurring on a daily basis.

Using interviews from decision makers–such as assignment editors and producers–who work daily in the trenches of working newsrooms, the reader learns how they decide where to send reporters; when to dispatch live trucks; and how the stories will be treated as they are placed in the shows. Why will one story get breaking news banners and be placed at the top of the show while others may not make the broadcast at all or may be given casual mention in later segments of the show?

Additionally, Jordan reveals the results of a ground-breaking questionnaire sent to producers and assignment editors at Chicago television stations to assess their rationales for covering murders stories the way they do. He also gives readers a first-hand account of some of the major murder cases he has covered over the years, including the infamous Richard Speck, Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy murder investigations.

Finally, Jordan examines how the explosion of social media platforms has changed the dynamic of reporting news and why murders are the perfect stories for television, as news organizations struggle to survive.