media + crime

• media focus on violent and sexual crime

  the media over-represent violent and sexual crimes - found that 46% of media reports were about violent and sexual crimes when these made up only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police

  media portrays criminals and victims as older and more middle class than the criminals and victims typically found in the cjs

  media exaggerates police success - police want to present themselves in a good light - over-representation of violent crime which has a higher success right
• news values

  media coverage of crime is filtered through the values and assumptions of what makes a story 'newsworthy'

  news values are the criteria used by journalists and editors when manufacturing the news
• what are the 8 news values by Jewkes?

  dramatisation - if it is dramatic enough

  proximity - if the event is physically close

  simplification - if the events are easily understood

  risk - if it can be presented as sufficiently serious posing a risk to the public

  spectacle - if there are graphic images or footage

  status - events that involve celebrities or high status individuals

  sex and violence - events that have a violent or sexual element

  children - events involving children as offenders or victims
• evaluation of news values


  globalisation and new forms of media (e.g social media) can link us to a wide variety of crimes which happen all around the world, not just crimes in close proximity
• fictional representation of crime

  fictional representations of crime follow the 'law of opposites' as they construct a backwards version of reality and are similar to news coverage

  e.g property crime is under-represented, fictional sex crimes are psychopathic strangers rather than acquaintances, fictional cops usually get the criminal
• evaluation of law of opposites

  recent trends in fictional representations of crime do not follow the law of opposites and are more reflective of real-life
• hypodermic syringe model

  media negatively influences viewers

  imitation - people will copy what they see

  desensitisation - become less affected by violence as it is seen so often in the media

  knowledge transmission - learn how to commit crime and get away with it

  stimulating desire for unaffordable goods - shown unrealistic lifestyles that they cannot achieve legitimately

  glamorising offending - crime viewed by young people as good and something which brings about status
• evaluation of hypodermic syringe model

  the media's influence is dependant on circumstance. for some children, television and the media may be beneficial, for some it may be harmful, and for some it may be neither
• the media and relative deprivation

  media helps to increase the sense of relative deprivation among poor and marginalised social groups

  media presents everyone with images of materialistic lifestyles of leisure and consumer goods as the norm to which they should conform - this stimulates the sense of relative deprivation by marginalised groups who cannot afford these lifestyles
• evaluation of the media and relative deprivation

  deterministic - not everyone who feels relatively deprived will turn to crime as a result
• crime and blurring lines of reality

  modern society is media-saturated and immersed in media representation and digital images including those of crime - this blurs the boundaries between images and reality of crime e.g gang assaults are sometimes framed for the camera and then edited and packaged as 'underground fight video'

  furthermore police car cameras alter the way in which police work
• the commodification of crime

  advertisers use images of crime and its thrills to sell products e.g rap and hiphop combine images of street crime with images of consumerist success

  mainstream advertisements such as for cars feature things like street riots, suicide bombing and graffiti e.g volkswagon used a suicide bomber advertisement for a car
• evaluation of media selling crime

  individuals are able to distinguish between the images and reality of crime - the two are not necessarily linked therefore this approach is too deterministic
• media creates moral panics

  the media exaggerate a problem in society causing the public to be overly worried and perceive the problem as worse than it is

  identify a threat to societal values (folk devils)

  present the group as a negative stereotype and exaggerate the problem

  moral entrepreneurs (e.g editors and politicians) condemn the group and its behaviour

  may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of the targeted group

  amplification spiral as being tougher discovers more criminal behaviour and thus calls for tougher action

  e.g mods and rockers 1960s
• evaluation of moral panics

  beck argues we live in a 'risk society' where we become used to the uncertainties that are becoming part of everyday life - as a result it is more difficult to create moral panic when society is already filled with endless risks and uncertainties