15. The Media and Crime

Question 1

What are the 2 main lines of enquiry regarding the relationship between the media & crime?

Answer 1

1. Media representations and reporting of crime are problematic
2. The media actually causes crime

Question 2

Reporting of crime is problematic: Consumer Spectacle

Answer 2

-Crime is made to seem cool & exciting,
-Crime is a popular theme for fictional & factual toys, books, Tv etc
-Contemporary media creates infotainment programmes, real life crime displayed in dramatised reconstructions
-Crime is used by advertisers to sell products, used as a revenue stream

Question 3

Reporting of crime is problematic: Agenda Setting

Answer 3

-Most people get knowledge of crime from the media
-Media have the power to choose what to display
-Media has to make money by selling showing the most eye catching crimes
-Perceptions, discussions and opinions of crime are influenced by what editors choose to show
-Agenda setting can influence liklihood of crimes being reported.

Question 4

Reporting of crime is problematic: News Values

Answer 4

-The media exaggerate, dramatise and sensationalise some crimes out of proportion to generate audience interest
-Journalists meet to discuss what is newsworthy
-There are specific news values applying to crime stories

Question 5

Reporting of crime is problematic: The Backwards Law (images constructed that are opposite to reality)

Answer 5

-Media accentuates the negative, bad news drives out the good
-Media highlights a victim culture
-Over exaggerates police effectiveness
-Emphasises individuality and individual incidents of crime instead of analysing crime patterns or causes of crime

Question 6

Reporting of crime is problematic: Hyperreality

Answer 6

-Increases public fear of crime
-Media actually creates a false or exaggerated image of crime which has little to do with reality.

Question 7

How do Marxists and Left-Realists respond to misrepresentations of crime?

Answer 7

-The media conceals the significance of white collar crime and corporate crime
-The media disguises the fact victims are mainly working class & the poor

Question 8

Postmodernity and Crime shows

Answer 8

-Our experience of crime and criminals comes from a source that claims to be objective and giving us a true representation but is actually created on a similar line to historical fiction
-Shot in documentary style makes us believe we are getting the truth not a socially constructed narrative

Question 9

What does Stan Cohen argue about the media?

Answer 9

The media amplifies crime through the process of labelling and creating folk devils & moral panics

Question 10

What research did Cohen conduct?

Answer 10

Researched to find truth behind the ‘Mods Vs Rockers’ according to the media the violence between the groups was a national problem

Question 11

What did Cohens research conclude?

Answer 11

‘Violence’ reported was minimal, majority of young people at the seaside during the riots were not Mods or Rockers, the media had created a sensationalised picture of these two groups

Question 12

Why might the media be criminogenic?

Answer 12

-Labelling folk devils, deviants suggests media reporting can create and make crime worse
-Media provides more motives for crime
-Provides knowledge and learning of criminal techniques
-New means of committing crime eg cyber crime
-Reduction of social controls over crime
-Provides targets for crime