Measuring criticism of the police in the local news media using large language models.

ABSTRACT: High-profile incidents of police violence against Black citizens over the past decade have spawned contentious debates in the United States on the role of police. This debate has played out prominently in the news media, leading to a perception that media outlets have become more critical of the police. There is currently, however, little empirical evidence supporting this perceived shift. We construct a large dataset of local news reporting on the police from 2013 to 2023 in 10 politically diverse U.S. cities. Leveraging advanced language models, we measure criticism by analyzing whether reporting supports or is critical of two contentions: 1) that the police protect citizens and 2) that the police are racist. To validate this approach, we collect labels from members of different politica

SUBMITTER: Crowl L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11892639 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature