THE IMPACT OF PRETRIAL PUBLICITY ON JURORS - A STUDY TO COMPARE THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION AND PRINT MEDIA IN A CHILD SEX ABUSE CASE

Previous research on how jurors are prejudiced by pretrial publicity ( PTP) has focused on the impact of print media (i.e., newspapers). Howe ver, in this ''television age,'' we are exposed to compelling and vivi d images of crimes and cases. This raises the question of whether pote ntial jurors may be more influenced by television media (e.g., news pr ograms or televised hearings) then print media (e.g., newspaper and ma gazine articles). Using an actual case involving extensive PTP, the pr esent study varied the type of medium (print articles, video, articles + video) presented to potential jurors. The results indicated that ex posure to the various media had a prejudicial impact on people, and th at they were unaware of their biases. As hypothesized, television expo sure and television plus print articles biased potential jurors signif icantly more than exposure to print media alone.