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A Market-Based Model of State Supreme Court News: Lessons from Capital Cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Richard L. Vining Jr. ,
Teena Wilhelm  and
Jack D. Collens
Richard L. Vining Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Teena Wilhelm
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Jack D. Collens
Affiliation:
Siena College, Loudonville, NY, USA
*
Richard L. Vining Jr., University of Georgia, 355 S. Jackson St., 104 Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA. Email: rvining@uga.edu
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Abstract

In this article, we present and test a market-based model of news content about state courts of last resort. We test our theory by examining newspaper coverage of decisions in death penalty cases. Our empirical results indicate that news elements of drama, novelty, and sensationalism influence coverage of state high courts' death penalty cases rather than traditional indicators of legal salience. News content either anywhere in a newspaper or on its front page is influenced by similar factors, but front-page coverage is more sensitive to dramatic conviction reversals and the rarity of executions in a given state. Our results suggest that traditional explanations of the relationship between crime and newsworthiness have limited impact on media attention given to state supreme courts. Media coverage of state high courts is instead associated primarily with the behavior of the court and its justices.

Keywords

courtsmediadeath penaltyjournalismstate politics
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 3 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014

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