“All the News That's Fit to Print”: A Content Analysis of the Correctional Debate in the New York Times

Abstract

Scholarship over the past three decades has generated considerable insight into the roles of the media, politicians, and law enforcement officials in constructing images of criminal justice; still, that body of research has rarely ventured into the realm of corrections. Filling this void, we drew a sample of 206 newspaper articles on corrections published in the New York Times for the purpose of examining news sources and their quoted statements. Our findings reveal that the New York Times relies heavily on political and government sources who—not surprisingly—express support for the prevailing correctional policies and practices. Whereas the New York Times also quoted sources critical of the government's correctional strategies, the dominance of political sources in the press offers evidence of agenda setting in the debate over corrections.