Mug-Shot Mania

[question everything]

Monday, Sep. 21, 2009
Mug-Shot Mania
By Tim Padgett
TIME

(snip)

Mug-shot galleries are increasingly popular features on newspaper websites, which are on a crusade for more page views and the advertising revenue that accompanies additional eyeballs. While big dailies like New York's Newsday and the Chicago Tribune have caught on to the trend, mug-shot mania is especially prevalent in Florida, where liberal public-records laws make it easier to obtain these photos. "It's a huge traffic driver for us," says Roger Simmons, digital-news manager for the Orlando Sentinel, where mug shots garner about 2.5 million page views a month, 6% of the site's total. The Palm Beach Post estimates its online police blotter, which streams its own ads, drew half of the site's 45 million page views in May.

(snip)

That, media watchdogs warn, is a troubling sign that newspapers are using voyeurism to survive. "It feeds societal prurience with no journalistic value," says Robert Steele, a journalism professor at DePauw University and an ethics specialist for the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the St. Petersburg Times. And while most mug-shot galleries advise viewers that the defendants are innocent until proved guilty, Steele says there's a "stench of unfairness to this kind of cyber-billboard." Robert Wesley, the chief public defender in Orlando, calls the mug-shot features "online Salem pillories."

Mug-shot backers argue that the cyber-billboard can help prevent repeat offenses. "If you're screwing up with DUI or domestic violence, it's harder to keep doing it if it's harder to hide it," says Dwayne Mayo, a former St. Petersburg security guard who publishes Cellmates, a weekly print tabloid dedicated solely to mug shots. Stephen Buckley, publisher of TampaBay.com, where mug shots draw about 13% of unique visitors each month, says his site didn't start up its gallery for the shame factor. "But this is information that's local, useful and interesting," says Buckley, "and if someone types in his zip code to see who's been arrested in his neighborhood, yes, it can have practical benefits."

While editors like Simmons say they do worry when they hear puerile radio jocks making fun of the newest mug-shot faces, they reject the idea that they're cheapening mainstream media "We also list restaurants that don't pass inspection," says Simmons. "We're in the public-information business." True, but minor lawbreakers like Laurie are wondering why their business is now everyone else's too.



http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921604,00.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. A troubling new trend...in my opinion

[question everything]

2. I agree. instead of reporting the news - which no body cares, it seems -

newspapers and networks rely on sensationalism. This is why Anna Nicole Smith, and Michael Jackson dominate the 24 hours cable news and shows, etc.

And then we wonder how to explain a complex issue like health care to an uninformed citizenry.