1.4

• Newspaper Types


  • Popular press (e.g. Daily Mail)
  • Quality press (e.g. Guardian) - broadsheet
  • Daily papers
  • Sunday papers (Observer) - 'Red Tops'=Tabloids
  • Local and regional (e.g. Cannock Chronicle)
  • Online versions now available
• Crime is big news in the press- 1 in 8 reports are crime + tabloids devote more space to it
• Infotainment


  Factual information/fictional entertainment
• Tabloids


  • Smaller in size, usually use more colour and photos throughout and less text, text is easier to read, aimed at people who are less educated
• Broadsheets


  • Large size newspapers (although some now make small versions as well for convenience), use more text and more formal language, aimed at more educated people
• Typically serious violent crimes and sexual crimes are reported
• Homicide 1/3 of all crime reports
• Homicide likely to be reported involve sex, financial gain, jealousy or revenge as motive
• Tabloids give more prominence to violence
• Emotive language and imagery used, such as "blood spattered" and "wild ones", used to create the viewpoint of being negative or positive
• Crime which appears in newspaper reports do not reflect those in official crime statistics
• Fallacy


  Something which is not true, a myth
• Newspapers often misrepresent crime, offenders, the police etc so we say they create fallacies
• Actual crimes in statistics are minor property crimes (e.g. shoplifting)
• Surette: this is 'the law of opposites'
• A fallacy is something which is not true, a myth
• Representation is inaccurate
• Overall representation= distortion, disproportionate, misportrayed, sensationalist, dramatic
• Newspaper Comparisons


  • Sun VS Independent
  • Mirror VS Guardian
  • Times VS Local Newspaper
• Press reports display both offenders and victims as typically older and higher status than those who actually appear in Courts
• Press over represent children, women, middle class, white and older people as victims
• Both press and official statistics agree that typical offender is male
• Issues with media coverage of crime

  • Ignoring the causes: press focus on particular incidents not overall cause of crime (e.g. terrorism reports without political background)
  • Coverage of police: exaggeration of police success solving crime whereas crimes perpetrated by police presented as work of 'one bad apple'
• TV news similar to papers focuses on violent crime, portrays offenders and victims as older, middle class
• Reality TV shows are an exception: portray young suspects
• Crime Fiction


  Follows a storyline, isn't following a true story, but can be loosely based on a true story
• Crime News


  Follows a true story, can be a documentary, isn't fictional, completely facts based only
• 1/5 cinema films are crime movies + up to half have significant crime content- similar pattern to TV
• Representation of violence in films is more explicit and extreme over time although property crime underrepresented compared to crime statistics
• Jamie Bulger- suggested defendants were influenced by film 'child's play 3"
• The crime being committed in Wolf of Wall Street is corporate crime, and it happens more often than people think due to it not always being shown in the media as it's not interesting enough
• The portrayal of the crime in Wolf of Wall Street is not as realistic as it could be as someone committing large-scale corporate crime would likely be more careful to avoid being caught
• The crime is shown in Wolf of Wall Street in a glamorised way to make it interesting and entertaining for the audience
• The crime being committed in Legend is organised crime, and it happens more often than the media can present as it is generally secretive and hidden
• Crime shown in Legend as glamorous and a way to get rich quick
• Legend occasionally shows violence, such as the fight scene between the Kray twins which leaves both covered in blood with carnage in their wake
• The portrayal of crime in Legend may be glamorised to make it more entertaining for an audience to watch as well as not show all of the crime committed as some of it may be too gruesome
• The crimes are portrayed in Legend like this so again, people watch the film and feel entertained
• The crime being committed in American Gangster is organised crime and not all organised crime is known about, and not all of it can be reported due to the threat of organised crime
• American Gangster does show some realism, however the crime is glamorised for entertainment and some gangsters would likely be more careful than portrayed