Measuring the Extent of Prejudicial Pretrial Publicity in Major American Newspapers: A Content Analysis

This study describes a content analysis of 14 American newspapers over an 8-week period, which measured the extent to which potentially prejudicial statements identified in the American Bar Association (ABA, 1983) Model Rules are reported in news stories about crime and criminal defendants. The sources through which such publicity reaches the press were also examined. Results indicated that over one quarter of the suspects described in crime stories are identified in connection with information specifically targeted by the ABA as problematic. Law enforcement officers and prosecutors were most often the sources of potentially prejudicial information about criminal suspects. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the effects of prejudicial publicity on juror decision-making and for the effectiveness of judicial remedies.