One of the strengths of the pedestrian e-mail network, PEDNET, is the diverse background of the participants. Last month, a physicist, Alan Streater (ads4@lehigh.edu), used his analytical skills to examine how major newspapers covered 42 motor vehicle pedestrian deaths. He termed his analysis “quick and dirty” but it provides insight into the quality of coverage.

He categorized the wording in the reports into neutral, slightly biased against the pedestrians (for example, pointing out twice that it was dark or that the pedestrian was not on a crosswalk), or very biased against pedestrians (for example, “darted out”, “ran out into traffic”, etc). He found the wording was mostly neutral …