Contemporary Issues In Crime - The Media

Question 1

News Values

Answer 1

C&D makes up a large proportion of news coverage. William & Dickinson found that newspapers devote to 30% of their news space is crime.

The media will distort things related to crime, e.g.
over represent violent and sexual crime,
the media portrays criminals and victims as older and MC,
exaggerates police success,
make people more scared of becoming victims etc.

These reflections show that the news is a social construct.
Cohen and Young argue that news is not discovered, but manufactured.

Question 2

continue of news values, key elements in social construction of news values:

Answer 2

immediacy,
dramatisation,
personalisaion,
higher status person or celeb,
simplification,
novelty or unexpectedness,
risk,
violence

Question 3

news values A03:

Answer 3

people want crime news, the media will give its audience what they want.
other powerful groups also have control over what is showed on the media,
e.g. continuously making the government look good and raising awareness about the hierarchy.
Link this to Marxism

Question 4

fictional representation of crime

Answer 4

TV and other media sources are an important part of where people get their knowledge of crime.
Big Business - Mandel found from 1945 to 1984, 10 billion crime thrillers were sold, while about 20% of movies are about crime.
Surette - fictional media follows the law of opposites, they are the opposite of stats, similar to the news e.g. sex crime are committed by psychos, property crime is always under represented etc.

Question 5

fictional representation of crime AO3:

Answer 5

there have recently been changes, with ‘reality’ shows featuring young, non-white, ‘underclass’ offenders. Increasingly showing corrupt and brutal police and victims have become more central.