Matching Items (2)
Description
Recently, there has been an upsurge in highly publicized negative police-citizen encounters, contributing to the current crisis in police legitimacy. These encounters, mostly filmed and disseminated by citizens, provide a new type of vicarious experience through which the viewer can assess police-citizen interactions, potentially shaping their perceptions of the police. These recordings have sparked national conversations and protests regarding police behavior and treatment of minority citizens. An area that has received less attention, however, is what effect viewing video recordings of less contentious police-citizen interactions has on public perceptions of police. To that end, this study seeks to address the knowledge gap through experimental methodology. Using actual footage of a variety of police-citizen encounters, this study examines the impact of viewing videos of police encounters on individuals' perceptions of police legitimacy, procedural justice, estimates of police misconduct, and their willingness to cooperate with police. Also examined are the impact these videos have on support for officer body-worn cameras and willingness to film the police. The findings indicate the impact of viewing police-citizen encounters on individual perceptions and attitudes are primarily linked to the content – whether positive, negative or neutral – of the video. Specifically, positive videos depicting procedurally just encounters increased perceptions of procedural justice, decreased estimations of police misconduct and increased support for officer body-worn cameras. Viewing negative videos, however, decreased perceptions of police legitimacy, distributive fairness, and procedural justice while increasing estimations of police misconduct and willingness to film the police in the future. The effects of the video encounters on perceptions of police were not lasting and were not stable when respondents were surveyed again two weeks later. Lasting effects were found for individuals’ self-reported willingness to film the police in the future. Given these findings, the process-based model of policing should consider also incorporating digital vicarious experiences when examining factors impacting perceptions of police.
ContributorsParry, Megan Marie (Author) / Wallace, Danielle M (Thesis advisor) / White, Michael D. (Committee member) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Although nearly invisible to the public, millions of hobbyists around the world have for decades played an important role in local journalism. Whether it is a bank robbery, train derailment, car accident, or the rescue of a cat stuck in a tree, chances are police scanner listeners will hear it and some will tip off journalists. These “if it bleeds it leads” stories are, for better or worse, an important part of local television newscasts and other forms of local news.
Long before internet content creators and social media sites, scanner hobbyists formed groups that created information feeds to share with each other and the public. In the 1990s, for example, a group of listeners in Colorado started a Twitter-like news sharing service for its 500 members, sending out updates over a network of alphanumeric pagers. Mountain News Net continues its work today using modern technology.
What is perhaps least known about scanner hobbyists is that Mountain News Net and certain other listener groups relied on journalistic-style principles and news values in the material they shared. Mountain News Net’s small team of “dispatchers” rely on well-understood guidelines for their feed, gatekeeping what is sent to their members. Local News providers in Colorado also work with the group to get access to news tips.
Indeed, there is much to be heard on a police scanner, usually small dramas that unfold in real-time, providing a record of events from the first responder perspective. Listening to these stories can be so compelling some listeners won’t go anywhere without their radios. Jack Dorsey was a scanner listener as a child, and he said the experience inspired him to help create Twitter.
This dissertation brings to light this unexplored world of public safety radio and its close connections to journalism and user-generated content. The nearly century-old hobby is examined in a historical context, and through semi-structured interviews with Members of the Mountain News Net and other key informants provides a deep explanation of how these pre-internet citizen journalists came to be and the role they play today.
ContributorsRackham, Brian James (Author) / Thornton, Leslie Jean (Thesis advisor) / Barrett, Marianne (Committee member) / Casavantes, Mike (Committee member) / Johnson, Rich (Committee member) / Liseblad, Madeleine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023