Crime And Deviance - The Media And Crime Flashcards
How is crime a consumer spectacle?
Fictional & non-fictional crime stories staple of the media diet e.g. crimewatch
SOCIOLOGISTS: How is crime used to sell products according to Hayward & Young?
Corps/advertisers use media images of crime to sell products e.g. gangster rap
SOCIOLOGISTS: How is crime used to sell products according to Fenwick & Young?
crime is packaged & marketed to young people as a romantic, exciting & cool cultural symbol
the fashion industry trades on images of the forbidden e.g. brands like obsession + some designer labels function as symbols of deviance e.g. bluewater banned wearing hoodies despite selling them
How does crime function as setting an agenda?
many issues that are discussed about are on the subjects the media reports -> media personnel can be selective with what they choose to report & can influence public opinion on crime & deviance (biased)
SOCIOLOGISTS: What do Greer & Reiner say about news values?
news, documentaries etc. of sexual/violent crimes is what excites & captures popular imagination
How is the news a social construct?
it is reflected in the distorted image of crime created by the media + it doesnt simply exist & is the outcome of a social process where journalists select & reject potential stories
SOCIOLOGISTS: What do Cohen & Young say about news, values & crime coverage?
news is not discovered, but manufactured
SOCIOLOGIST: What are news values, defined by Jewkes?
values & assumptions about how exciting & interesting something is to the audience
SOCIOLOGIST: Give 3 news values identified by Jewkes?
spectacle/graphic images
celebrities/high status individuals
children
Give an example of a news story that features a news value?
Joe Biden’s son evading prison -> celebrities & high status people
SOCIOLOGISTS: What did Williams & Dickinson find out about British newspapers?
They devote 30% of space to crime
SOCIOLOGIST: What does Surette say about the backwards law?
the media construct images of crime & justice which are the opposite version of reality
SOCIOLOGISTS: What evidence to Greer & Reiner point out in suggestion of the backwards law?
there is an overrepresentation/exaggeration of sex, drugs & violent crime
there is an underrepresentation of property crime
media exaggerate the risk of becoming a victim (elderly, women, white etc.) & police success in clearing up cases (want to present themselves in a good light due to the overrepresentation of violent crime)
EVALUATION: What are some limitations of the backwards law?
theres a new trend towards ‘reality infotainment’ that feature young, non white offenders + increasing tendency to show less sucessful & corrupt police & victims have become more central (taking law into their own hands -> audience can identify with their suffering)
How does the media create the idea of a hyperreality of crime?
the media socially construct a distorted view of crime with an increased risk of becoming a victim (links to Baudrillard (postmodernist)) as well as act as moral entrepreneurs & guardians of national morality by labelling & stereotyping certain groups & activities as deviant/social problems