軍警為國家中特殊的職業,其背負著國家整體安全重任,軍人負責保家衛國,警察負責維護治安,「制服」塑造出「紀律」、「權威」等形象,軍警人員及其工作被期待具有更高道德標準,故違法違紀事件常引起媒體注意,且易引起社會大眾的反感及撻伐。 本文是研究平面媒體對於軍警違法違紀事件的報導,藉由3大報對於軍警違法違紀事件的新聞報導為題材,透過內容分析法比較其描述軍人與警察之違法犯紀報導之報導量、主題、內容、成因及歸責偏向,並比較平面媒體報導軍人與警察違法違紀行為之同異處。樣本採自蘋果日報、聯合報及自由時報之電子報新聞與數位新聞資料庫,以關鍵字搜尋與軍警相關之新聞,研究範圍係採2012年內隨機抽取3個月份,平面媒體的非地方紙本報紙,就類型、放置版面、被害人描述、加害人特徵描述(職等、性別、家庭背景)、犯罪動機描述及是否呈現圖片等,檢視平面媒體報導軍警之型式、軍種、標題、主題及立場等類目,共分析新聞報導189則。 研究結果發現軍人與警察雖然為相類似之職業屬性,但在違法違紀之報導時,報紙的屬性及報導內容有兩點明顯差異,其餘屬性相近。首先聯合報、自由時報比蘋果日報更偏向報導警察的違法違紀新聞,其中又以「貪污」性質之犯罪類型為主;蘋果日報則偏向軍人違法違紀之新聞報導,以「性犯罪」類型為主。其次,在階級比較中,中高階的警官被報導的機率均大於中高階的軍人,而基層軍人違法違紀案件新聞被報導機率高於基層警察。其他方面,軍警違法違紀之新聞報導在是否為偵審階段、犯罪成因、歸責偏向、文字長短、改善建議及涉案人是否為主管等無顯著差異。
Military and police are distinctive professions as both of them are responsible for a country’s security. The military protects the homeland, whereas policemen maintain law and order. Their uniforms are a symbol of “discipline” and “authority” per se, thus, higher moral standards might be applied to them and their occupations by the public. Violation of law and order by military and police arguably attract more media attention and public resentment and criticism. This study focuses on how newspapers cover misconduct and crimes committed by military and policemen. The main purpose is to use content analysis of three major newspapers in Taiwan (frequency, headlines, content, causes of incidents and responsibility attributions), as well as to compare any differences between military and police news reports. Samples were selected from e-news databases of Apple Daily News, United Daily News and Liberty Times, covering three months of 2012 by keywords relevant to military and police misconduct and crime. A total of 189 news stories were coded (Corpus N= 189)by their category, page number, headlines, wording, description of victims and offenders’ rank, gender and family background, motives, branch of services, responsibility and any further recommendations to improve the systems. The analysis indicated that in spite of the similarity of military and police professions, two differences were identified in the analysis. One is that the United Daily News and Liberty Times tended to report more instances of police misconduct and crime than the Apple Daily News, the former two particularly in favor of covering police corruption and against integrity stories. The Apple Daily News, on the other hand, tended to report more on military misconduct and crime, particularly interested in sexual scandals and offenses. Second, in comparison to the rankings, misconduct and crime committed by upper-intermediate ranked police officers were reported more than upper-intermediate military officers. With regard to causes of incidents, attribution of responsibilities, word count of news, recommendations, there was no significant difference between military and police revealed in the newspaper coverage.