The Social Construction of Corporate Violence: Media Coverage of the Imperial Food Products Fire

Although investigative reports have contributed to the social movement against white-collar crime, few studies assess the extent to which the media socially construct corporate violence as a “crime.” We examine this issue through a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the fire-related deaths of 25 workers at the Imperial Food Products chicken-processing plant, which resulted in the company's owner pleading guilty to manslaughter. The analysis revealed that newspaper reports largely attributed the deaths to the lax enforcement of safety regulations but did not initially construct the deaths as a crime or subsequently publicize the criminal convictions.