| YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN CRIME
journalists per media house to cover all stories. They simply do not have the manpower to cover events and stories in a more comprehensive manner. This mainly comes down to finance and economics. The local economies are small and media houses cannot generate sufficient revenue to better equip and staff newsrooms. Added to this, the increased competition from big tech like Facebook, Instagram, X and Tic Toc in the social media space leaves media houses struggling to survive much less remain viable. Another issue is that newsrooms are dominated by females and typically media houses prefer to leave crime reporting to males for safety and security reasons as typically women are more susceptible to harm. This is true for on location reporting and firsthand investigative journalism which can come with individual security risk of reprisal and attack. As the need for crime reporting and related stories increases the existing capacity becomes even more stretched. This situation is exacerbated as there are no reported security measures or protocols in place for journalists covering crime and the trust in security forces is lukewarm and the best rating is fair in Barbados according to the Public Opinion Survey on Crime and Related National Issues by the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit (2021). Additionally, journalists are responsible for their own safety at crime scenes and after stories are published. This does not engender an enabling environment for journalists. Some newsrooms seem to reflect the belief that bad news sells, and they need to maintain their audience to remain in business 14 . While the heads of newsrooms and journalists will usually do their best to present fair and balanced stories, there can be some skew in which stories are published and lead. Other factors also come into play. Tourism is the primary source of income in Barbados, if there is back-to-back reporting of crime it could appear that the island is unsafe according to a journalist source, which may impact how stories about crime are presented to the public. Crime stories are placed in sections of papers and newscasts, surrounded by other stories such as business, government assignments etc. which could serve to “blunt” the impact and observed frequency of stories. A major external societal factor affecting all 3 countries is the small size of population, where people often do not want to be quoted or go on record. This is not unusual for smaller societies but in some Caribbean countries including Barbados there is an additional issue – the “informer” culture. Under “informer” culture, 15 whistleblowers are seen as pariahs and will be treated as such if they are discovered. Sometimes whistleblowers can face open hostility and violence for speaking up over everyday matters, much less crime and violence.
14 The Medium Blog, “Why We Seem to Prefer Bad News Over Good News” by Ray Williams, 2 nd April 2023. 15 St. Vincent Times, 17th February 2024
30 A Media Analysis of the Coverage of Youth Involvement in Crime and Violence and Trafficking in Persons (June 2021 to June 2023) in the Eastern Caribbean
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