The Impact of Not Reporting Hate Crime

Eric Steere

es581519@ohio.edu 

Journalism can be extremely powerful when it comes to making change to the public, as well as making the public aware. Done correctly, news stories can change how certain events and actions take place in the future, change policies in the government, and even change the way people go about their day-to-day lives.

Awareness can only be brought to the public if the journalism or media outlet decides to cover it, and One thing that has flown under the radar for many media providers is the topic of hate crimes. 

Every single day, crime takes place all around the world, and while sometimes it may seem like that is all the media talks about, there are so many hate crimes and discriminatory actions that go largely unnoticed by the public. According to a propublica.com article entitled "What We Discovered During a Year of Documenting Hate" by Rachel Glickhouse, over half of all victims of hate crimes do not report the incident to the police, and the majority of the police force isn't trained to deal with hate crimes. 

Source: nbcnews.com 

Awareness is extremely low for hate crimes, and this is partly due to the media's lack of reporting on the subject. When there is reporting on hate crimes, the information can be inaccurate or misleading because details of the real story get left out or exaggerated.

For example, word choice can have a huge impact on the way an audience views a situation, like how people view a protest. As stated in a poynter.com article entitled "How journalists should handle racist words, images and violence in Charlottesville" by Al Tompkins and Kelly McBride, describing things as a "riot" and a "civil uprising" are two entirely different terms; a riot indicates a crime taking place, whereas a civil uprising is a justifiable action against injustice.

It is important for the media to cover topics such as hate crimes, but more importantly cover them accurately to reassure those who fall in targeted demographics. Inaccurate reporting, or misinterpreted coverage like mentioned before can do more harm than good by making a situation worse than it may need to be.

Going forward, I believe many journalists need to face the fact that hate crimes are an unfortunate reality. More importantly, however, journalists must realize that they have the power to combat these crimes by bringing awareness to the problem and informing the public of what is happening to its people. 

Failure to convey such information can lead those committing the crime to believe these actions are acceptable, or that they can get away with crimes since nobody is stopping them. Journalism could be the key to preventing hate crimes in many areas across the globe, but it all depends on the media organizations and if they decide to cover it.