Gatekeeping, News Values and Selection: Factors Determining the Newsworthiness of Hate Crimes

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study addresses the question what makes hate crime incidents newsworthy and which factors are conducive to such incidents being reported on. Relying on news value theory, we identify criteria (cultural proximity, conflict) that explain why some hate crimes make the news and why others do not. We use a dataset of police-registered hate crimes in the Netherlands in 2017 (N = 3379). This is the entire population of hate crimes that the police reported in the whole country. This allows us to disentangle dynamics of the news selection process and identify bias. We find that both target group and type of hate crime affect the newsworthiness: hate crimes with victims targeted due to religious motives (Islamophobia, anti-Semitism) are more likely to be covered; hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender and ethnicity are less likely to pass the gates. Hate crimes that are more conflictual in nature (i.e., violent hate crimes, vandalism) are more likely to be covered too. These selection effects likely have important effects on public awareness and political reactions.