Prime suspects: The influence of local television news on the viewing public

Local television news is the public's primary source of public affairs info rmation. News stories about crime dominate local news programming because t hey meet the demand for "action news." The prevalence of this type of repor ting has led to a crime narrative or "script" that includes two core elemen ts: crime is violent and perpetrators of crime are non-white males. We show that this script has become an ingrained heuristic for understanding crime and race. Using a multi-method design, we assess the impact of the crime s cript on the viewing public. Our central finding is that exposure to the ra cial element of the crime script increases support for punitive approaches to crime and heightens negative attitudes about African-Americans among whi te, but not black, viewers. in closing, we consider the implications of our results for intergroup relations, electoral politics, and the practice of journalism.