2.1 Media and Crime content

• What does Pearson argue the public are when it comes to crime?

  Both fearful of and fascinated by crime
• What two ways do sociologists argue media is complex?

  1. Media coverage of crime is highly selective, not all the crime that takes place in society is reflected in the media and certain types of crime are given priority over others.
  2. The media offer particular ways of understanding whats happening instead of simply telling what is happening - Hall calls this 'interpretative frameworks'.
• In what ways do Reiner argue deviance is the essence of news?

  Deviance contains elements journalists regard as newsworthy such as immediacy, dramatisation, personalisation, titillation and novelty.
• What did both Reiner and Soothill and Walby find about the representation of crime?

  Reiner notes crimes of violence, especially homicide are disproportionately reported across the news compared their incidence in official crime statistics. Soothill and Walby found rape and sexual crime were over-reported, sometimes covering as much as 45% of media coverage of crime. On the other hand Reiner found property crime was significantly underreported.
• What do Katz and Lazarsfeld argue in their 2-step flow model of media influence?

  Suggested that people discuss what they see/hear/read in the media with others whose opinions they value who consume a range of media before accepting/rejecting media messages.
• The claim that media violence leads to real-life violence is not well supported by the evidence but the issue remains unresolved.
• What are the effects of the misrepresentation of crime by the media?

  • Raising the level of the public's fear of crime
  • Ideological effects
  • Exacerbating hate crime
  • Impacting on the criminal justice process
• What are two well-attested media effects in relation to crime?

  • Moral panics
  • Deviancy amplification
• What are moral panics characterised by?

  Concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality and arguably volatility.
• What does deviancy amplification need to be distinguished from?

  A fantasy crime wave
• What role does the media play in deviancy amplification?

  A crucial contributory role.
• What type of people do moral panics often focus on?

  Young people either as folk devils or as victims.
• What is the key feature of moral panic?

  The level of public concern is disproportionate to the real threat. Whether the level of public concern is disproportionate in a particular case involves making a value judgement so is not a simple matter of fact.
• What has new media produced?

  New media, associated with digital technologies, have produced new ways of committing traditional crimes as well as entirely new types of offences.
• What is the difference between cyber-dependent crimes and cyber-enabled crimes?

  Cyber dependent crimes are where ICT devices are both the means for committing offences and the target of offences, whereas cyber-enabled crimes are where the use of ICT facilitates the commission of offences that can also be carried out without the use of ICT.