Media and crime

• What does surette say about media distortion of crime ?

  Law of opposites – The media shows the direct opposite of official statistic. For example the media focuses on murders and violent crime when most crimes in the UK are property based crimes. The media also shows victims to be more likely to be female when statistics show that young men aged 19 – 24 are more likely to be a victim of crime.
• What does Kidd-Hewitt & Osbourne say about media distortion of crime ?

  They see media reporting of crime as increasingly driven by the need for a spectacle. (Key value of dramatization) Spectacles are engaging because audiences become both repelled by the activities but fascinated at the same time.
• What does postman say about media distortion of crime ?

  Media coverage of crime is increasingly a mixture of entertainment and sensationalism leading to what Postman refers to as “Infotainment”
• What are the news values ?

  • The Immediacy of the story
  • Dramatisation – action and excitement
  • Personalisation - human interest
  • Higher Status of the focus of the story.
  • Simplification – Black and white, no shades of grey
  • Novelty/unexpectedness
  • Risk – victim centred stories about vulnerability and fear.
  • Violence – Visual and spectacular acts
• What are the different types of police in fictional crime ?

  -Super Intelligent

  (Sherlock)

  -Bumbling idiots

  (Clouseau)

  -Always get the bad guy
• What are the different types of victims in fictional crime ?

  -Female Victims = Helpless

  -Male Victims = Vigilante

  -Ethnic Majority
• What are the different types of criminals in fictional crime ?

  -Super Villain

  (Moriarty)

  -Stupid 

  -Psychopaths (Dexter)

  -Rational / Planner

  (Danny Ocean)
• What are the different types of criminals in factual media ?

  Under Class

  Ethnic Minorities

  Young

   Men
• What are the different types of victims in factual media ?

  Missing white woman syndrome

  Selective Reporting
• What are the different types of police in factual media ?

  Corrupt 

  Brutality 

  Racists 

  Incompetent
• What’s Functionalism / Pluralism Perspectives on Media influence on crime?

  In reporting crime the media helps to keep social solidarity. Crimes reported tend to reflect the things people are most concerned about and most want to see reported, thus they create demand which is met by the media.Different forms of media report different crimes in different ways, they are not all dominated by a single ideology or small group of owners pushing the same agenda.
• What’s Marxism Perspectives on Media influence on crime?

  The reporting of crime reflects the ideology of the ruling class, meaning:

  The crimes of the ruling class or those at the higher end of society are under-reported. The media’s emphasis on sexual and violent crime means less importance is attached to some very large and serious white- collar crimes and corporate crimes, which rarely get reported.Crimes of the working class are over-reported.The reporting of crime is used as a way of maintaining control over powerless groups.
• What’s Feminism Perspectives on Media influence on crime?

  Crime reporting reinforces the stereotyping and oppression of = women.Women are portrayed as victims Under reporting of violence against women, especially domestic violence.They are highly critical of reporting of sex crimes against women as a way to provide entertainment.
• What’s Interpretivists Perspectives on Media influence on crime?

  The media is a social construction as is crime.Interpretivists look at the labels attached to people who are determined to be deviant and see the media as a moral entrepreneur which determines who are deviant and who are not.
• What’s Postmodernism Perspectives on Media influence on crime?

  Baudriallard – Media creates reality – people have no understanding of crime only the representations of crime they experience through the mass media.
• What does missing white woman syndrome mean?

  Missing White woman Syndrome means that the type of victim that is likely to make the news cycle or the media is a white middle class woman as she will fit the stereotype of what they want a victim to be.
• Media as a cause of crime ?

  The Hypodermic Syringe Model suggests that media audiences are passive recipients of the messages from the media and that these messages without critical thought. It argues that these messages are acted upon mindlessly by audiences.
• What’s moral panic ?

  A Moral Panic is an instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society.
• What’s the cycle of moral panic?

  1. An activity gains media attention

  2. Agencies of control respond

  3. Deviance becomes amplified

  4.Exaggeration Symbolisation Prediction

  5. Problem becomes redefined
• What’s the fear of crime cycle ?

  -Media causes a fear of being a Victim of crime

  -Spend more time at home

  -Consume more media

  -Generates more fear of crime
• Some examples of modern Moral Panics 

  •BlackMuggings -1970’s

  • HIV & Aids – 1980

  • Satantic Child Abuse – 1980’s • Video Nasties – 1990’s

  • Guns – 2000’s

  • Islamic Terrorism – 2000’s •Knife Crime - Current
• What’s imitation?

  The idea that people will act out the crimes and the violence that they view via the media, for example the College student who acted out scenes from GTA.
• What’s school of crime ?

  Watching crime shows and the news can help criminals to hone their skills and learn how to be less detectable in their crime. It can also show them how to commit a crime.
• What’s arousal ?

  Watching crime shows and the news can help criminals to hone their skills and learn how to be less detectable in their crime. It can also show them how to commit a crime.
• What’s desensitisation?

  Watching violence in the media can lead to the lowering of peoples level for shock value meaning that they no longer are horrified by it and can be more likely to commit the act themselves.
• What’s deprivation ?

  Links to the Left Realism and Strain Theory. The idea that the media provides unobtainable ideas of lifestyles of the rich and famous which can lead to people commit crime to achieve these lifestyles – e.g. Made in Chelsea
• What’s glamorisation ?

  TV shows such as Sopranos and Marco’s provide a glamorised view of the criminal lifestyle which can lead to people wanting to emulate it and be involved.
• Criticisms of Moral Panic Theory (McRobbie and Thornton)?

  Frequency - The frequency of

  moral panics has increased: they are no longer noteworthy.

  Context -  In the past moral panics would scapegoat a group and create ‘folk devils’. Today there are many viewpoints and values in society.

  Reflexivity - Because the concept of moral panic is well-known, some groups actually try to create one for their own benefit.
• Criticisms of Moral Panic Theory (McRobbie and Thornton)(2) ?

  Difficulty - Because there is less certainty about what is unambiguously ‘bad’ today, moral panics are harder to start.

  Rebound - People are wary about starting moral panics as there is the possibility of it rebounding on them, e.g. John Major’s ‘family values’ campaign.