{"id":{"repo_id":"utc","oai_identifier":"oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2045"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/utc/oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2045","repository":{"repo_id":"utc","name":"University of Tennessee - Chattanooga","base_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Can jury instructions reduce the negative impact of pretrial publicity?","abstract":"The increasing prevalence of pretrial publicity (PTP), media coverage of a case that occurs prior to a trial, raises concerns about fair trials. Jurors may rely on pretrial information rather than trial information to decide the fate of a defendant and may even confuse the sources of the information. While it is difficult to limit jurors’ exposure to PTP, jury instructions to improve memory for trial information may limit these effects. Participants (N=100) read negative PTP articles about a defendant. A week later, they were randomly assigned to jury instruction conditions (notetaking, question-posing, or standard) and watched a trial video about the case. Mock jurors who took notes and asked questions during the trial video were significantly better at remembering trial statements and attributing trial and pretrial information to its source than jurors who received standard instructions. However, instruction condition did not influence the number of guilty verdicts rendered.","abstract_html":"The increasing prevalence of pretrial publicity (PTP), media coverage of a case that occurs prior to a trial, raises concerns about fair trials. Jurors may rely on pretrial information rather than trial information to decide the fate of a defendant and may even confuse the sources of the information. While it is difficult to limit jurors’ exposure to PTP, jury instructions to improve memory for trial information may limit these effects. Participants (N=100) read negative PTP articles about a defendant. A week later, they were randomly assigned to jury instruction conditions (notetaking, question-posing, or standard) and watched a trial video about the case. Mock jurors who took notes and asked questions during the trial video were significantly better at remembering trial statements and attributing trial and pretrial information to its source than jurors who received standard instructions. However, instruction condition did not influence the number of guilty verdicts rendered.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Oxford, Skylar J."],"institution":"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Warren, Amye","Ross, David; Shelton, Jill T.","College of Arts and Sciences"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:47:13Z","subjects":["Free press and fair trial--United States","Jury instructions","Mass media and criminal justice","Pre-trial procedure--United States","Verdicts"],"languages":["English","eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/866","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Warren, Amye","Ross, David; Shelton, Jill T.","College of Arts and Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Oxford, Skylar J."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2024-05-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Masters theses","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Free press and fair trial--United States","Jury instructions","Mass media and criminal justice","Pre-trial procedure--United States","Verdicts"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/866"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Dept. of Psychology","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The increasing prevalence of pretrial publicity (PTP), media coverage of a case that occurs prior to a trial, raises concerns about fair trials. Jurors may rely on pretrial information rather than trial information to decide the fate of a defendant and may even confuse the sources of the information. While it is difficult to limit jurors’ exposure to PTP, jury instructions to improve memory for trial information may limit these effects. Participants (N=100) read negative PTP articles about a defendant. A week later, they were randomly assigned to jury instruction conditions (notetaking, question-posing, or standard) and watched a trial video about the case. Mock jurors who took notes and asked questions during the trial video were significantly better at remembering trial statements and attributing trial and pretrial information to its source than jurors who received standard instructions. However, instruction condition did not influence the number of guilty verdicts rendered."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Can jury instructions reduce the negative impact of pretrial publicity?"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Warren, Amye","Ross, David; Shelton, Jill T.","College of Arts and Sciences"],"dc:creator":["Oxford, Skylar J."],"dc:date":["2024-05-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Dept. of Psychology","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."],"dc:description.abstract":["The increasing prevalence of pretrial publicity (PTP), media coverage of a case that occurs prior to a trial, raises concerns about fair trials. Jurors may rely on pretrial information rather than trial information to decide the fate of a defendant and may even confuse the sources of the information. While it is difficult to limit jurors’ exposure to PTP, jury instructions to improve memory for trial information may limit these effects. Participants (N=100) read negative PTP articles about a defendant. A week later, they were randomly assigned to jury instruction conditions (notetaking, question-posing, or standard) and watched a trial video about the case. Mock jurors who took notes and asked questions during the trial video were significantly better at remembering trial statements and attributing trial and pretrial information to its source than jurors who received standard instructions. However, instruction condition did not influence the number of guilty verdicts rendered."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/866"],"dc:language":["English","eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"],"dc:relation":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"],"dc:rights":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["Free press and fair trial--United States","Jury instructions","Mass media and criminal justice","Pre-trial procedure--United States","Verdicts"],"dc:title":["Can jury instructions reduce the negative impact of pretrial publicity?"],"dc:type":["Masters theses","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:47:13Z"}