Lippmann’s triangular relationship on the crime scene: Pseudo-environments convicting the innocent

Abstract

Lippmann noted that analyses of public opinion must start ‘by recognizing the triangular relationship between the scene of action, the human picture of that scene, and the human response to that picture working itself out upon the scene of action’. This is certainly the case for crime scenes. The majority of the public will never be a victim of serious crime, and many people will not have close contact with law enforcement and the court system. Hence, much of what is learnt about crime is from exposure to news reports and depictions in popular media. Lippmann noted that crime is among the most important topics in terms of news output. Two case studies of persons who were initially convicted and later exonerated provide examples of how journalists report on eyewitness testimony when those eyewitness reports formed the main evidence for the prosecution. These case studies also provided opportunities to explore how pseudo-environments were developed by journalists to signify that the wrongfully convicted individuals were indeed guilty after such a jury verdict – without much, if any, reference to the possibility that those individuals were convicted based on witness misidentification.