media

• What type of crimes do the media tend to over-represent?

  Violent crimes
• Why do some sociologists believe the media influences crime rates?

  They see the media as a cause of crime through imitation and moral panics
• What are news values in relation to crime reporting?

  • Criteria that influence what news is reported
  • Reflects media's interest in sensational or dramatic events
  • Contributes to the social construction of crime
• How does the concept of deviance amplification relate to media coverage of crime?

  It suggests that media coverage can increase public fear and perception of crime
• What is meant by the term 'moral panic' in the context of media and crime?

  A moral panic refers to widespread fear or concern over an issue that is often exaggerated by the media
• What do sociologists believe about the relationship between media and crime?

  Some sociologists believe the media can cause crime through imitation
• Imitation 


  the media provides deviant role models, which results in copying their behaviour
• Arousal 


  viewing violent or sexual imagery
• Desensitisation 


  repeated viewing of violence
• 3 Reasons the media is the cause of crime

  Transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques​

  Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (eg. through advertising)

  ​Glamourising offending
• Distorts the image of crime

  Overrepresentation of sexual and violent crime

  ​Exaggerates police success

  ​Exaggerates the risk of victimisation

  ​Overplay extraordinary crimes
• The Law of Opposites in Fictional Representations of Crime

  Fictional crime representations are opposite to official statistics: property crime is underrepresented, while violence, sex, and drug crimes are over-represented.
• Surette: Fictional sex crimes are caused by psychopathic strangers, whereas most sex crimes are committed by acquaintances ​
• Who examined the media's response to disturbances between working-class teenagers in the 1960s?

  Cohen
• What was the nature of the disturbances that Cohen studied?

  They were relatively minor disturbances between mods and rockers
• What is the deviance amplification spiral as described by Cohen?

  It is the process where media exaggeration leads to increased public concern and further deviance
• What are the three factors that contributed to the deviance amplification spiral according to Cohen?

  • Exaggeration and distortion: exaggerating numbers, violence, and damage
  • Prediction: assuming and predicting further conflict
  • Symbolisation: defining mods and rockers through their symbols
• How does the media cause moral panics in contemporary society?

  By amplifying issues such as acid attacks and terrorism
• NEWS VALUES

  COHEN AND YOUNG:

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  News is not discovered, but it is manufactured. A central feature manufactured news is the concept of ‘news values’, these are criteria in which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the news. Key news values include:

  ​

  Immediacy - ‘breaking news’

  Dramatisation - action and excitement

  Personalisation  - human interest stories about individuals

  Higher status - celebrities

  Simplification - eliminating shades of grey

  Risk - victim-centred stories about vulnerability and fear
• the media, relative deprivation and crime

  LEA AND YOUNG:

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  The media present everyone with the image of a materialistic ‘good life’, which is the norm in which everyone should conform. However, this stimulates the sense of relative deprivation and marginalisation felt by groups who cannot afford these goods.