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The News Values of Court Reporting

Jones, Richard

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Abstract

Reporting the courts on behalf of the public is one of the traditional tasks of local newspapers. Yet in the UK, twin financial crises affecting both the local media market and the criminal justice system have led to concerns over the sustainability of court reporting. Furthermore, the practice of reporting to the courts has arguably been under-explored, especially when set against media coverage of crime generally. This article seeks to establish insights into the quality and quantity of contemporary court reporting in the UK’s local press. It analyses content published on the websites of six prominent daily newspapers, using Steve Chibnall’s 1977 work on crime news values as a framework. The article finds that daily court coverage remains widespread, especially at key titles owned by the UK’s largest newspaper publisher, Reach, potentially challenging narratives around the decline of public interest journalism in the local press. It also develops a list of the news values of court reporting, as distinct from crime reporting, for the first time.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 4, 2025
Online Publication Date Jan 20, 2025
Publication Date Jan 20, 2025
Deposit Date Jan 21, 2025
Publicly Available Date Jan 21, 2025
Journal Journalism Studies
Print ISSN 1461-670X
Electronic ISSN 1469-9699
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Pages 1-17
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2025.2453871
Keywords journalism, news values, court reporting, crime reporting, local journalism, local newspapers
Additional Information Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rjos20; Received: 2023-10-24; Accepted: 2025-01-04; Published: 2025-01-20

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