crime and the media

• what did ericson et al 1991 find?


  45-71% of press and radio news was about deviance
• what do the media give in terms of crime?

  a distorted view on criminals and policing
• statistic to support the idea that media overrepresent violent and sexual crime?


  ditton and duffy found that 46% of media reports were about sexual or violent crimes however only makes up 3% reccorded by police
• whats does felson call it when the media overplay extraordinary crme and underplay ordinary crimes?

  dramatic fallacy
• why does media covergae exaggerate police sucess?

  because police are a major source of crime stories and want to present themselves in a good light and because the media overrepresents violent crime which has a higher clean up rate
• why was there a focus of 1960s on murders and petty crime and when did this chnage?


  1990s death penalty abolished
• why has there been a chnage in good representation of police in news coverage example?

  sarah everard was murdered by by wayne cousins in 2021 presented police inbad light
• what does the distorted picture of crime reflect?


  news is a social construction
• who belived that news wan manufactured rather than discovered?


  cohen and young
• what aspect is central to the manufacture of news and helps editors decide wether to include it?

  news value
• what does immediacy mean in terms of news value?


  breaking news
• risk?


  victim centred stories about vunrability and fear
• violence?


  especially visible acts
• whats fictional represenation of crime?


  tv cinema and novels impact on our knowlege of crime
• who came up with the law of opposites?


  surrette
• whats the law of opposites?

  fictional represenation of crime is opposite to official statistcs and similar to media coverage
• what crime is underrepresented in fiction?

  property crime
• what crime is overrepresented in fiction?


  violence drugs and sexual crime
• whats the diffrence between real life homicide and fictional homicide?


  real life homicide is normally a result of a brawl or domestic dispute whilst fictional represenation are a prodcut of greed and calculation
• whats a new trend in fictional crime represenation?

  audience now identify with offender and their suffering and police portrayed as avenger