Crime covered by local news
Most impressive multimedia
Screen shot of infographic
The Los Angeles Times website has an excellent page on its website for crime reporting. The multimedia and infographics are high-quality, informative and varied.
At the top of the page, which is great placement, there is an infographic that provides crime analysis by neighborhood. The graphic maps crime in Los Angeles cities and breaks down crime into violent or property categories. There is a timeline under the map with more crimes listed by date.
A user can put in their neighborhood or search an L.A. County address and a Google map of certain crimes in that neighborhood comes up. The map can be zoomed in or out and the crimes are broken down into categories.
Violent crime
- homicides
- rapes
- assaults
- robberies
Property crime
- burglaries
- thefts
- grand theft auto
- theft from vehicles
Screenshot of infographic
Under the map there are more graphs and information in pie charts, bar graphs and line graphs. There is information on crimes in the current or previous week, monthly and weekly totals of crime, broken down by categories, a ranking of crime in neighborhoods and a six month crime summary.
The crimes are also listed out by location, type and date and time. Information for the police agency that covers the neighborhood is also provided.
This information is part of a larger project by the Los Angeles Times called Mapping L.A., which provides a profile of each neighborhood in L.A., including its schools, demographics, ethnic makeup, population, income, crime and more.
Ranking: A+
This multimedia presentation has so much information. It is presented in an understandable and clear format, with graphics as well as text. The varied graphics work to provide similar or the same information in different ways, so viewers can understand in the way that works best for them. The maps and charts also provide different types of information, so as you scroll down the page you’re learning different aspects about the crime in a particular neighborhood.
This is an amazing example of providing local coverage of crime in an exact, clear and extremely informative way. This example of a quality multimedia project is not based in the DMV and is not a local news outlet. But I felt the need to include it to show the potential of very effective multimedia.
Mapping out homicides
Screenshot of infographic
The New York Times has an impressive interactive map of homicides from 2003 to 2011. Homicides from the five boroughs are shown in the map, along with the month and time of day of the homicide, race and ethnicity of the victim, race and ethnicity of the perpetrator, sex of the victim and the perpetrator, age of the victim and the perpetrator, the weapon used and the borough it occurred in.
This data are represented as percentages and shown on the Google map, which can be zoomed in or out. The map also has a link to the story, which was published in June 2009.
Ranking: A
Smaller news outlets cover crime
Local coverage of crime is not as expansive or multimedia rich as the larger news publications. Local television news stations often provide video with stories and social media, for viewers to get involved in conversations, comment on stories and share stories. The social media interaction is more prevalent on local news websites compared to national and larger news websites.
Screenshot of stories
ABC7’s Crime page is well organized and easy to navigate. The stories are broken out with clear headlines, in a different colored text, photos under the headlines and a sentence or two about the specific crime under the photo. There is also a comment link under the stories, to allow for audience interaction.
This layout is simple and continues for most of the page, providing clarity. But it also becomes boring. On the right of the stories, there is a “Recommended Facebook” social plugin, which shows ABC7’s recent Facebook activity. This plugin is trying to increase audience interaction. There are other links underneath the Facebook plugin, including blogs and photo galleries.
Ranking: B-
Screenshot of gallery
myFOXdc.com, FOX5’s website, has an interactive photo gallery on the top of its News page. The gallery has large photos on one side and a headline and text on the other, with a link to “Read More.” The gallery moves through the stories automatically and if the viewer hovers his or her mouse over a story that story will stay on the front of the gallery.
The placement of the gallery at the top of the page is purposeful. It draws attention and keeps viewers interested because new photos and stories keep streaming by.
Most of the stories on the page deal with crime. Underneath the gallery, there are breakdowns of different regions, such as DC News, Maryland Headlines, Virginia Headlines and National News.
Ranking: C
Screenshot of graphic
The Virginian-Pilot, or pilotonline.com, has a special banner on the top of the page for crime news, called Hampton Roads, with a photo of a police car behind it. This helps with its branding and distinguishing the page from other pages on the site and other news sites.
The page is easy to scroll through, with crime stories in different areas of Virginia broken out in subheads and bullets. The different colors for the headlines and stories also help keep the viewer’s interest. Some stories have photos next to them. Mostly, the page is a list of crime stories.
One of the subheads are different databases, including parking tickets, Norfolk Police Department recruit injuries, juvenile crime in South Hampton Roads and executions in Virginia since 1982 or 1977. There are also citizen resources easily accessible on the page, such as police departments, a sex offender registry, court records search and a list of regional jails.
There is a Twitter plugin on the right side of the page. The Twitter feed includes Tweets specifically about crime in Virginia, so it is not an all-encompassing Twitter, which helps with the focus of the page.
Ranking: C
Screenshot of graphic
News4’s website has a page for local news. There is not a real focus on this page, instead there is a jumble of crime, local events and features. All of the stories have a video or photo next to them. Photos and videos help better inform viewers in other ways than text. It’s important to have a mixture.
The stories all have a social media aspect, where viewers can share the story on Twitter or Facebook. On the right side of the page, there is also a Top Local graphic which lists the top five most watched videos, most read stories and most emailed stories. Viewers can click and go to individual videos or stories.
The Investigations page is more focused on crimes, business crimes and illegal events, such as an illegal car dealership.
Ranking: D