East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2017 A Content Analysis of Media Accounts of Death Penalty and Life Without Parole Cases Lisa R. Kirk East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Kirk, Lisa R., "A Content Analysis of Media Accounts of Death Penalty and Life Without Parole Cases" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3184. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3184 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A Content Analysis of Media Accounts of Death Penalty and Life Without Parole Cases ____________________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Criminal Justice/Criminology East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Criminal Justice & Criminology ____________________________ by Lisa Regina Kirk May 2017 ____________________________ Dr. John Whitehead, Chair Dr. Jennifer Pealer Dr. Larry Miller Keywords: Death Penalty, Life Without Parole, LWOP, Media, Newsworthy Murderers, Juvenile Murderers, Serial Killer ABSTRACT A Content Analysis of Media Accounts of Death Penalty and Life Without Parole Cases by Lisa Regina Kirk The study analyzed a convenience sample of published accounts of death penalty cases and life without parole cases. The objective of the study was to explore factors that influence the selection of cases for coverage in books, think tank reports (e.g., Heritage Foundation), and periodicals and factors related to coverage of homicides resulting in a death penalty sentence or a life without parole sentence (often termed “America’s other death penalty”).