Summary
“A vast body of research supports the proposition that properly managed personal contact between members of rival groups will reduce stereotyping, bias and prejudice. This Contact Hypothesis Theory, first described by Gordon Allport, has been applied to reduce intergroup prejudice in over 500 experiments with over 250,000 participants since 1948. Relying on a small sample of contact volunteers representing police officers and journalists, this study incorporated attitudinal survey results and interviews for a qualitative examination of tension reduction between Canadian police officers and journalists. Within the subject police service (<2000 officers), study results indicated prejudice reduction, a rise in police self-esteem, a heightened sense that both professions are forms of public service, and an enhanced sense of the importance of police-media collaboration. Officer baseline surveys (non-contact participants) also indicated a strong support for the public’s right to know what police are doing, and why. General population respondents also strongly asserted the need for police agencies to deliver better quality information to news organizations, which they viewed as being responsible for the policing community’s reputation with the public. To reduce an apparent gulf between police and their communities, police agencies can start by reducing the intercultural conflict between journalists and police officers.”--Page 2.