Carissa Byrne Hessick, University of North Carolina School of Law; Prosecutors and Politics Project, has published The Prosecutors and Politics Project: Media Coverage of Prosecutors and Their Elections: Results of a Pilot Study as UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 5248215. Here is the abstract.
This pilot study aims to improve the discussion surrounding media coverage of the criminal justice system more generally and of locally elected prosecutors in particular. It provides a glimpse into the quantity and the quality of the media coverage that prosecutors receive during an election year in print news articles, as well as a limited number of local and national television news broadcasts. Specifically, the study quantifies the amount of media coverage, the content of coverage, and the tone of coverage that prosecutors and candidates for prosecutor receive. The study includes data from a sample of five to 10 prosecutor elections in four different states. In total, the study examines 27 prosecutor elections in jurisdictions of varying populations; some of those elections were contested, while others were uncontested. In the contested elections, the study also includes information about the coverage that candidates for the office of prosecutor received. All told, the study examined nearly 2,000 articles—every article that mentioned the elected prosecutor or a candidate for the office in the calendar year 2020.
Download the article from SSRN at the link.