Punishing or regulating? US media attention to hate crime and speech

This paper aims to examine the evolution of the public discourse on hatred by analysing shifts in media coverage and attention to hate crimes and hate speech over time. The scholarly literature offers varying perspectives, and our study proposes two key frameworks for addressing hate crimes and speech directed at socially vulnerable populations. The first is the prosecutorial approach, which focuses on jurisdiction and the imperative of bringing perpetrators to justice. The second is the regulatory approach, which highlights voluntary regulations by platform companies and the role of online users. Through a topic modelling analysis of 8602 hate-related articles published in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times between 2000 and 2021, our findings indicate a significant shift from the prosecutorial to the regulatory approach over time. This shift underscores the growing influence of online hate speech and the need for comprehensive strategies to address hate-related incidents. Additionally, we observe an expansion in the range of victims, with women increasingly being targeted by hate crimes and hateful expressions.