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Cited by 25News Media Framing and Political CommunicationPolicing Practices and PerceptionsJournalism and Media Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

WHOSE LIVES MATTER?: The National Newsworthiness of Police Killing Unarmed Blacks

Simmons, Alicia D.·2017·Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
DOI 10.1017/s1742058x17000212
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Abstract

This study investigates the characteristics of cases of police killing unarmed Blacks that receive national news coverage. I analyze an original quantitative dataset measuring the parameters of 111 cases occurring between 2013 and 2015, and the amount of coverage they received in six national news outlets. Multivariate models indicate that cases’ national newsworthiness is positively associated with Blacks’ share of the population where the fatal encounter occurred, and the presence of video evidence, peaceful demonstrations, or civil lawsuits. National newsworthiness is negatively associated with encounters that were initiated by a call to police, and those involving decedents who resisted arrest, suffered electroshock injuries, or were impaired by drugs or alcohol. The findings strongly suggest that the most newsworthy cases are those that align with an injustice frame. I discuss the results using theories of newsworthiness, describing how patterns of story availability and story suitability might shape which cases rise to the top of the national agenda. Using the social construction of reality approach, I discuss the implications of the results for how the public understands the empirical nature of police killing unarmed Blacks, and the symbolic meaning of these events.

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Metadata

Authors
Simmons, A. D.
Affiliations
Colgate University (US)
Corresponding author
Simmons, Alicia D.
ORCID
Simmons, Alicia D.
Venue
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2017
Volume
14
Issue
2
Pages
639-663
ISSN
  • 1742-058X (ISSN-L)
  • 1742-0598
DOI
10.1017/s1742058x17000212
OpenAlex
W2799450954
Cited by
25
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
FWCI
1.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 396 d)
Locations
Du Bois Review Social Science Research on Race (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Communication › News Media Framing and Political Communication
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
Keywords
media coverage, newsworthiness, racial disparities in policing, video evidence, civil litigation, nonviolent resistance, social construction of reality, media agenda setting, racialized violence

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: WHOSE LIVES MATTER?: The National Newsworthiness of Police Killing Unarmed Blacks. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1017/s1742058x17000212
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Simmons, A. D. (2017). WHOSE LIVES MATTER?: The National Newsworthiness of Police Killing Unarmed Blacks. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1742058x17000212