Crime And Deviance 8 - Media Flashcards
Media and Crime stats?
Williamson and Dickinson (1993) 30% newspapers devoted to crime
Mandel (1984) 1945-1984 10 billion fictional crime thrillers sold, 25% prime time TV, 20% films
In America violent crime is 36x more likely to be reported than property
46% of news reports about violent or sexual crimes but this only makes up 3% of all crimes police record
Exaggerates risk of victimisation for women, white and middle class
Why does Jewkes (2011) say crime is newsworthy?
It’s bad news which sells more than good news
Human interest element as anyone can be a victim
It’s dramatic in terms of effect on victim
Some crimes are rare and therefore draw more interest from media e.g. violent crimes by women and children
Is news coverage realistic?
Nope, see stats at beginning for overestimation
Felson (2002) fallacies of crime?
Media reporting about crime reinforces myths or fallacies about it
E.g. most victims are women and middle class, and that most crime is planned (reality most victims are male and working class and crime is mostly spontaneous)
Why does the media exaggerate crime?
Functionalists Reiner (2007) media is partially responsible for crime as they create anomie and moral uncertainty among poor, as crime is shown to work, so they might commit it
Marxists - reinforces ruling class ideology to give the impression that working class crime more costly than white collar/corporate crime. Also it sells more so capitalism
Left realists - highlights and reinforce relative deprivation felt by poorer groups who cannot afford the ‘good life’ (celebrities lives as displayed by media)
Whats Newsome (1994) ‘hypodermic syringe’ theory?
Media is a powerful secondary agent of socialisation
Impressionable audiences e.g. children may be negatively influenced by media
Content, especially violent content, can cause copycat behaviour in children, then de-sensitisation, then glamorisation and then problem solving, ending in an increase in crime
Criticisms of the ‘hypodermic syringe’ theory?
Fails to recognise difference in age, social class, intelligence, education etc. in viewers and how this would effect their response
Experts on violence agree it is caused by a range of factors e.g. poor socialisation, peer-group, mental illnesses, etc.
Buckingham (1993) even very young children are media literate and use it responsibly
Gauntlett (1998) the theory is based on flawed methodology and dubious experimentation
Morrison (1999) showed a range of violent film clips to groups of women, young men and war veterans, they all thought the violent scene from Pulp Fiction was funny because of the humorous dialogue, but the domestic violence scene from Ladybird, Ladybird caused distress because of the realism, child actors in the scene, and the unfairness
Cumberbatch (2011) reviewed 3500 studies on relationship between media and violence and failed to find one which had a clear link
Effects of crime in the media?
Agenda setting (exaggerate or not police success, victims as central with audience invited to share in suffering, young non-white underclass offenders) which can effect others viewpoints on certain things
Schlesinger and Tumber (1992) correlation between heavy TV/tabloid use and fear of becoming a victim, especially of physical attack
Criticisms of media’s effects?
Correlations not evidence as anxiety may generate viewing, not the other way round
Interpretists - individuals give different meanings to media violence, to understand we must look at these different meanings
Research has found limited negative effects on audiences
What do Left realists think about media and crime?
Cohen (1972) it can cause moral panic, particularly at times of great change
Cohen (1972) moral panic pattern?
The media identifies a problem group and uses sensationalist reporting to hype panic
Symbolism: highlight their outfits, behaviour, etc. so their visible to police
Demonisation: the group labelled as folk devils
Condemnation: those with influence (politicians, etc.) condemn the group
Stamping down: pressure from media to curb problem, push back from group leading to more arrests, bad media reporting, self-fulfilling prophecy
Deviancy amplification: group are hostile and resentful, creating deviance
Evidence of moral panic?
Young (1971) late 1960s hippy cannabis users
Redhead (1993) acid house raves in late 1980s led to police blocking motorways, crashing parties in riot gear and eventually the government banning illegal parties 1990
What causes moral panics?
Interactionists (Cohen) believe its because of social change
Neo-Marxists (Hall (1978)) believe their engineered by the ruling class to distract from crisis of capitalism
Modernists (Beck (1992)) symptom of modern risk consciousness that characterises late modernity
Left realists moral panics based in reality and fact, those identified are often a real threat to inner-city areas
Support for moral panic theories?
Muncie (1987) drawn attention to role in media to define and label moral and deviant behaviour
Awan (2014) moral panics can be started on social media platforms and bleed into the media (criticism of McRobbie and Thornton)
Criticisms of moral panic theory?
McRobbie and Thornton (1995) concept is outdated because of diversity of opinions on social media and in the media itself means people less likely to hook onto one thing
Critcher (2003) concept too abstract and vague to be testable
