media representations of crime

• the media v official statistics

  • the media over-represent violent and sexual crime - ditton + duffy - 46% of media reports were about sexual offences when they made up 3% of official crime records
  • the media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle-class - felson - the 'age fallacy'
  • media coverage exaggerates police success
  • the media exaggerate the risk of victimisation
  • crime is reported as a series of separate events
  • the media overplay extraordinary crimes - felson - the 'dramatic fallacy'
• the 8 news values

  • immediacy - 'breaking news'
  • dramatisation - action and excitement
  • personalisation - human interest stories
  • higher-status - involving celebrities
  • simplification - removing grey areas
  • novelty or unexpectedness - a new angle
  • risk - victim-centred stories about vulnerable victims
  • violence - especially visible and spectacular acts
• changes in media coverage of crime

  • schlesinger + tumber - in the 1960s media focus was on muggings and murders, but as these became less interesting in the 1990s coverage became more sensationalised and focused on terrorism and child abuse
  • soothill + walby - there is an increased focus on sex crime, which is usually centred on identifying a sex 'beast' or 'fiend' committing serial rapes, which in reality are uncommon cases
• the news values

  cohen + young - the disorted view of crime suggests that news is a social construction, and that rather than reporters discovering it it's manufactured as a product designed to bring in the most profit through sales and viewers, which causes stories to either be accepted or rejected

  • news values are the criteria by which editors select newsworthy stories
  • deviance is by definition often newsworthy as it is abnormal and goes against society's values, so automatically fulfills several of these values
• fictional representation of crime

  the public view of crime also stems from works of fiction, which have become more popular since the 1940s

  • surette - fictional crime media portrays crime following the 'law of opposites' in a total diversion from real life, while still mirroring news reports
  • property crime is underrepresented in favour of drugs and sex crimes
  • fictional homocides are more often products of greed and calculation rather than brawls and domestic violence
  • fictional sex crimes are committed by evil strangers not people known to the victim
  • fictional cops are usually successful
• changes in fictional representation of crime

  recent trends of crime novels, shows and films show some signs of becoming more realistic to real crime patterns and statistics

  • infotainment shows tend to focus on young, non-white 'underclass' offenders
  • police are becoming more likely to be shown as unsuccessful, corrupt and brutal
  • victims have become a more central part of the narrative and audiences are invited to identify with them