This article explores the emotional dimension of online audience participation in relation to crime reporting. Traditionally, crime reporting has been analysed in relation to how it is framed and the impact this has on audience perceptions of crime. However, drawing on a case study of community reporting website Homicide Watch DC, this article will explore the role of meaningful audience engagement in crime reporting and in particular the role of emotionality in this participation, specifically as a catalyst for civic empowerment and ultimately civic engagement.
BarnesR (2014) The ‘ecology of participation’: a study of audience engagement on alternative journalism websites. Digital Journalism2(4): 545–557.
2.
BarnesR (2015) Understanding the affective investment produced through commenting on Australian alternative journalism websiteNew Matilda. New Media & Society17(5): 810–826.
3.
BirdSE (2010) Seeking the audience for news response, news talk, and everyday practices. In: NightingaleV (ed.) The Handbook of Media Audiences. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 489–508.
4.
CarrollBLandryK (2010) Logging on and letting out: using online social networks to grieve and to mourn. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society30(5): 341–349.
5.
ColemanRThorsonE (2002) The effects of news stories that put crime and violence into context: testing the public health model of reporting. Journal of Health Communication7(5): 401–425.
6.
CritcherC (2003) Moral Panics and the Media. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
7.
DowlerK (2003) Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: the relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture10(2): 109–126.
8.
DuweG (2000) ‘Body-count journalism: the presentation of mass murder in the news media. Homicide Studies4(4): 364–399.
9.
GibbsA (2011) Affect theory and audience. In: NightingaleV (ed.) The Handbook of Media Audiences. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 251–266.
10.
GortonK (2009) Media Audiences: Television, Meaning and Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
11.
HermidaAThurmanN (2007) Comments please: how the British news media is struggling with user-generated content. In: 8th international symposium on online journalism proceedings, University of Texas at Austin, 30–31March. Available at: http://online.journalism.utexas.edu/papers.php?year=2007
JerinRAFieldsCB (1994) Murder and mayhem in USA Today: a quantitative analysis of the national reporting of states’ news. In: BarackG (ed.) Media, Process, and the Social Construction of Crime: Studies in Newsmaking Criminology. New York: Garland Publishing, pp. 187–202.
14.
LivingstoneS (2005) On the relation between audiences and publics. In: LivingstoneS (ed.) Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere. Bristol: Intellect Book, pp. 17–41.
15.
LivingstoneSLuntP (1994) Talk on Television. London: Routledge.
16.
LuntPStennerP (2005) The Jerry Springer Show as an emotional public sphere. Media, Culture & Society27(1): 59–81.
17.
PanttiP (2010) The value of emotion: an examination of television journalists’ notions on emotionality. European Journal of Communication25(2): 168–181.
18.
PanttiPWietenJ (2005) Mourning becomes the nation: television coverage of the murder of Pim Fortuyn. Journalism Studies6(3): 301–313.
19.
PeeloM (2006) Framing homicide narratives in newspapers: mediated witness and the construction of virtual victimhood. Crime, Media, Culture2(2): 159–175.
20.
PetersC (2011) Emotion aside or emotional side? Crafting an ‘experience of involvement’ in the news. Journalism12(3): 297–316.
21.
PutnamRD (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
22.
ReichZ (2011) User comments: the transformation of participatory space. In: SingerJBHermidaADomingoD. (eds.) Participatory Journalism: Guarding the Open Gates at Online Newspapers. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 96–117.
23.
RichardsB (2010) News and the emotional public sphere. In: AllanS (ed.) The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. New York: Routledge, pp. 301–311.
24.
RobertsP (2006) From Myspace to our space: the functions of web memorials in bereavement. The Forum32(4): 1–4.
25.
RobinsonS (2011) Journalism as process: the organizational implications of participatory online news. Journalism & Communication Monographs13(3): 138–210.
26.
RobinsonSDeshanoC (2011) Citizen journalists and their third places. Journalism Studies12(5): 642–657.
27.
RodriguezC (2001) Fissures in the Mediascape: An International Study of Citizens’ Media. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
28.
RosenberryJ (2010) Virtual community support for offline communities through online newspaper message forums. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly87(1): 154–169.
29.
ShepardAC (2011) Online Comments: dialogue or Diatribe?Nieman Reports, Summer, pp. 52–53.
30.
SingerJBHermidaADomingoD. (eds) (2011) Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
31.
StevensJE (2008) Reporting on Violence: New Ideas for Television, Print and Web. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Media Studies Group.
32.
Van DijckJ (2009) Users like you? Theorizing agency in user-generated content. Media Culture Society3(1): 41–58.
33.
Wahl-JorgensenK (2013) The strategic ritual of emotionality: a case study of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles. Journalism14(1): 129–145.
34.
WellmanB (2004) Connecting communities: on and offline. Contexts3(4): 22–28.
35.
WetherellM (2012) Affect and Emotion: A New Social Science Understanding. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
